


Across the Universe

by lolanbq



Series: The Many Tales [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Angst, Established Relationship, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith (Voltron), Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-29
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2018-10-12 12:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10490610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolanbq/pseuds/lolanbq
Summary: Hunk and Pidge are just two Garrison cadets who stumble into a much bigger problem than they were ready to take on, but Hunk promised to help find Pidge's family and maybe he can help reunite some other people too.





	1. Chapter 1

“Pidge, I can’t just let you sneak out of the room again.” Hunk said as he stood in front of their dorm door, “You’ve done it like every night this month and I’m just really nervous you’re going to get caught and thrown out.”

“Hunk—”

“I mean thrown out might be what would happen, but I don’t even know what you’re doing. Are you stealing information from the Garrison? Are you secretly meeting someone? Are you literally just star gazing? Pidge, I just don’t know and that is worrying me, okay?” Hunk was more talking to himself than to Pidge at this point, and they let him go ahead knowing how fidgety he got when he kept it all in his head.

“Hunk. I’m just stargazing.” Pidge said slowly, shifting their back of equipment to a slightly more comfortable position. Yeah, they had been sneaking out every night, but it hadn’t been for a month. It had been for longer than that, but Hunk didn’t need to know that. Hunk also didn’t need to know that Pidge was intimately familiar with how to maneuver the school at any time of day to avoid teachers and security. He definitely did not need to know that.

“You see, you see that? I don’t believe you. The stars change seasonally so there isn’t a need for you to be going out every night. Plus you’re at _The Galaxy Garrison_ this place has the most advance star maps in the country, arguably the world, so why would you need to make your own. Which is the only justifiable reason you would be spending every night out there.” Hunk listed off his reasons effortlessly, and Pidge was impressed that Hunk knew all of that. Hunk’s interests never really spanned towards the astronomy of the Garrison, but more towards the mechanics of the ships and general internal workings of machines.

But since he did know that, it kind of ruined Pidge’s excuse.

“Look, Hunk. If I take you with me tonight and show you what I’m doing will you promise not to tell anyone and agree to let me do my thing?” Pidge asked hesitantly. Hunk’s answer would affect Pidge’s plans significantly. They had no worries about Hunk keeping his mouth shut.

“Fine.” He said at last, “I can tell I’m not going to like this, but fine.”

“Thank you, Hunk.”

 ***

So that was the start of them heading into the middle of the desert. Okay, so it wasn’t actually the middle of the desert, it was about a mile and a half from the Garrison where a shack was hidden in the massive caverns that decorated the landscape. Shack was a generous term for it, it was more like crumbling, warped two-by-fours loosely nailed together in the shape of what a blind man thought might have been a liveable rectangle. The door didn’t hang evenly, the one window didn’t fit its frame, and the glass was so clouded you couldn’t even see through it.

“Pidge, what is this?” Hunk asked eyeing the health and safety hazard that Pidge was leading them to, they apparently had no problem with it but Hunk was more hesitant.

“Oh, this?” Pidge paused at the door, “It’s just a shack I found. Garrison regulations only require searching a mile radius minimum. I know we aren’t too far off that mile mark, but with all these rock faces I guess they called it quits and went with a mile. I mean, I don’t blame them there is literally nothing out there in the desert.” Pidge smiled reassuringly at Hunk, he appreciated that.

“And you just found this?” He hadn’t stepped closer to the structure.

“Yeah, it’s been pretty handy for what I’ve been doing.” Pidge said, proud of their discovery and its usefulness, “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually structurally sound. No rusted nails and no splinters. You’ll be fine, Hunk.”

“So, uh, what have you been using this for?” He nodded and cautiously stepped forward to enter the shack. Pidge didn’t smile like he had expected them to, instead they pursed their lips and opened the door to let him see their work for himself.

The walls were plastered with papers of all different sizes. Hunk could see that their point of origin was a corkboard on the back wall and had exploded outwards from there. There was a map of the desert, there were graphs marking things he didn’t know, and there was a weird drawing of a giant monster-thing with a flaming sword. He just assumed that Pidge had gotten bored one night and decided to draw that, he did not want to think seriously on what a giant weaponized robot would have to do with space and the desert.

“Um,” He said stalling for time to try and piece together the organized chaos around him.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but if it makes you feel any better I did feel guilty about lying to you so I did actually make a star chart,” Pidge sheepishly pointed up to the ceiling and Hunk gaped at the intricacies of the chart.

“Wow, you should have been an artist,” Hunk mumbled to himself before going back to looking at all the data around him, “Okay, what is all this? I’m trying to put it all together, but it’s not going too well.”

Pidge fidgeted a moment before answering.

“My dad and brother were on the Kerberos mission that failed, the Garrison said that the mission failed due to piloting error, but I know that’s a lie! I have to find them.” Pidge stated with a fire in their eyes that threatened to burn down the shack, “I’ve been out here listening to alien chatter, there are pieces I can catch coming from the edge of the galaxy. They keep mentioning this super powerful and super dangerous mega weapon called Voltron. I think Voltron took my family.” Pidge finished.

“So, are you a Holt or a Shirogane?” Hunk asked.

Pidge stared at him.

“I’ll take it you’re a Holt.” Hunk stated connecting the dots, “You’re a Holt, you think you’re family was captured by a giant scary robot, and your first instinct is to go running off into space after them.”

Pidge nodded.

“You’re crazy.” Hunk commented distractedly looking at the walls with a new understanding, “That’s crazy. This is _crazy_. What do you need help with?”

“What?” Pidge started at Hunk’s offer to help them. They had been caught up in how many times the word crazy was being tossed out to effectively respond to him.

“What do you need help with?” Hunk offered more insistently, determined to be of assistance.

“Help? You were just talking about how crazy this all was.” Pidge argued arms akimbo.

“I mean, you can’t really blame me for being overwhelmed. This is a lot to take in, but I’m not going to let you go chasing out into space without me. What kind of friend would that make me?” He smiled reassuringly at Pidge, he had his arms crossed over his chest ready to get to work.

“ _Thank you, Hunk_.” Pidge said sincerely, their eyes watering slightly before wiping them dry.

“Also, not to like make you uncomfortable or anything, but the Holt’s had a daughter. . . .” Hunk trailed off trying to read Pidge’s reaction to what he was insinuating, “I was just, you know, thinking out loud here, because you, uh, you said that you lost your father and brother and, um, from what I remember from the article I read about the launch was that they, uh, and feel free to stop me if I’m wrong, but they only had two children?”

“I’m their daughter Katie,” Pidge said and was ready to leave it at that, but it didn’t feel complete, they didn’t feel like that was all that needed to be said. They had been living with Hunk for the past several months, Garrison assigned roommates Pidge Gunderson (male) with Hunk Garrett (male). “I’m a trans girl and my family was really accepting of it, of me. I had been in the Garrison as Katie Holt, but they kicked me out when I went digging for information about the Kerberos mission. I had to improvise from there.”

“So,” Hunk said thinking, Pidge prepared themself for the worst,” do you want to be called Katie? What pronouns do you want? Oh my god, have I been making you uncomfortable misgendering you this entire time with they/them? I am really sorry, Pidge, I didn’t mean to! Wait! I don’t even know if you want to be called Pidge. I’m just really sorry about that.”

“Hunk, it’s fine.” Pidge said quickly, they knew his anxiety could act fast but they had never seen it act quite that fast. “Pidge is fine, Matt used it as a nickname for me. And I do prefer she/her pronouns, but they/them was fine for the time being. Besides you were really the only person who acknowledged them.” She said a little bitterly.

“Okay, okay cool. Thank you for telling me that, and showing me all of this. I know it takes a lot to let people in.” Hunk held open his arms for a hug and Pidge couldn’t turn the offer down. Hunk gave the best hugs, “So, what should we start with?”

Pidge was about to go into detail about what she had done already when the ground shook underneath them. Though the shock sent them both to their knees the walls of the shack never wavered. Hunk appreciated that.

“Um, I think we should start with whatever that was.” Pidge said distractedly heading towards the door and back out into the desert following the streak across the sky to the smoking pile of wreckage that was about a quarter mile from them. Pidge started forward without looking back, Hunk was a little more hesitant to follow.

“Hunk, you signed up for this. You need to follow them—her—her, follow her to the wreckage,” Hunk gave himself a pep talk before moving out of the safety of the cavern the shack was in.

It didn’t take them long to get to the site of the crash, it had been a quarter mile farther out than the shack so the Garrison hadn’t shown up yet. Hopefully not for a while yet. Pidge and Hunk stood at the top of the crater the ship made and just looked at it for a little bit.

“That is not human.” Pidge said finally after several moments of silence, “Hunk, you’re good with tech, care to add your thoughts?” As much as he was freaking out he took a second to look it over.

“Um, well, it’s purple, for starters.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Pidge said unimpressed.

“I can’t see through solid metal, Pidge, so I hope you weren’t expecting a make, model, and engine type. All I can tell you is that no science program on Earth uses purple for ship colors.” Hunk said defensively.

“That is actually really helpful.” Pidge started scooting down into the crater to get a closer at the possibly alien ship.

“I say it’s not human and you go poke it with a stick,” Hunk laments, “That is actually a pretty good summary of our friendship. Nevermind. Proceed, but I swear one of these days I will be right about the amount of trouble you’ll get us into.”

“Hunk, my family is _in space_. How else am I supposed to get to them unless I also go to space?” Pidge asked while poking at what she thought might be the cover over the cockpit. One large dark glass panel popped open, letting out a hiss from the change in air pressure, and folding back into the body of the ship. Or it least it would have done that entirely if the ship hadn’t been badly damaged in the crash landing. Pidge tried pushing the panel out of the way, but it wouldn’t budge from where it had jammed itself.

“Pidge,” Hunk said carefully, “Pidge, I don’t think it’s empty.”

Pidge stopped what she was doing to peer under the glass and finally see what was inside, and Hunk was right. There was person in the pilot’s seat. The guy didn’t look like an alien. Actually he looked like—

“Pidge, I hate to cut this short but it looks like the Garrison has finally gotten their act together and is on their way here.” Hunk said nervously eyeing the dust clouds from the Garrison’s vehicles get closer.

“Hunk, you have to help me get this guy out of here!” Pidge yelled, climbing into the cockpit to loosen the belts and undo the buckles, getting him out of the ship would be meaningless if they couldn’t also get out of there fast.

“Are you crazy? You want me to help you steal an alien?” Hunk knew he agreed to help her, but kidnapping was taking things a step too far.

“He’s not an alien, Hunk.” Pidge grunted as she pulled the man out of the seat, but couldn’t do much more than that. “Are you going to help me or not?”

Hunk fidgeted nervously, but gave in with a sigh. He was here anyway might was well help his best friend steal or kidnap an alien from the very prestigious and well funded military science base that was coming to collect everything, while also attending that school so if they find anything left behind they could very easily track him down and expel him. Hunk grabbed the guy by the armpits and heaved, he may be strong but this guy was heavy. Pidge stuck her head in and gave it a last once over so as not to miss any important information, making a pleased noise she grabbed a flash-drive looking stick out of the flight console and stuck it in her pocket. Great now he would be thrown in jail for tampering with evidence.

“Alright, you got him?” Pidge asked over her shoulder while scrambling up the hill.

“Yeah, this isn’t easy, but I got him.” Hunk fought his way out of the crater, unceremoniously dragging the guy behind him, “When this guy wakes up I’m gonna need to apologize to him. Geeze, how is the Garrison not here yet? I feel like it’s been forever.”

“Looks like they’re bringing the big quarantine tent, that thing doesn’t fold up at all and the truck that carries it is _slow_.” Pidge commented thankfully.

“But seriously, no advance team to secure the area?” Hunk set the guy down to catch his breath.

“Hunk, do not give them ideas on how to make this harder for us.” Pidge scolded.

“I’m not! I’m just observing their sloppy work, man. Not ‘man’ as in you are a man but ‘man’ as in gender neutral person.” Hunk rushed out the last sentence noticing his mistake right away.

“I’m not too crazy about man, but ‘dude’ and ‘bro’ should be fine, I think.” Pidge said without looking at him.

“I am sorry and I will definitely keep that in mind for the future.” Hunk made himself a mental note, his fingertips nervously tapping together in what looked like messily signed ‘more.’

“We can definitely talk about this more later, when the Garrison is not steadily getting closer.” Pidge said shifting from foot to foot ready to leave, “Can you carry him? I don’t think I can be much help there.”

“He’s heavy, but I should be good for now,” Hunk hefted the guy over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “Wow, okay super heavy. Let’s go.”

 ***

It took them longer to get back to the shack than it took them to get to the crash sight. They got back to the cavern right as they watched the Garrison put up the heavy duty quarantine tent, they giggled at the fact that they kidnapped the only person who was going to use it.

“Are you going to tell me who this guy is now?” Hunk asked setting the man onto the pile of blankets Pidge had in one of the corners.

“Yeah,” She said quietly, taking a seat on the table in the middle of the room, “That’s Shiro. Takashi Shirogane, he went to Kerberos with my dad and brother.”

Hunk sat himself down on the floor before the realization that he had dragged _the Shirogane_ through the desert.

“You know, of all the ways I thought I might meet him this one never crossed my mind.” Hunk said seriously to himself, he looked up at Pidge and they both broke into laughter once again.

Their down time was cut short when Shiro started groaning from the corner. Hunk and Pidge shifted their attention to him, trying not to make any sudden movements. Shiro shifted more violently before sit straight up, eyes wide and panicked.

“Where am I?” His breathing was labored, his voice was rough, and his whole body was tense ready to move at the drop of a hat, “They’re coming. I have to—I have to tell someone they’re coming!” He frantically looked around finally noticing that he was not alone.

“Hey, Shiro,” Pidge said gently, sliding off the table to try and comfort him, “Do you—do you remember me?” She stopped and kneeled two feet away from him, so as not to overwhelm him.

“Matt?” Shiro whispered disbelievingly, “Matt, how are you here?”

Pidge choked back a sob before continuing.

“I’m not Matt, Shiro. I’m his sister, Katie?” She said carefully.

“Katie?” He muttered. They could tell by the way his eyes clouded over that he was doing some serious mental gymnastics to remember—whatever he was trying to remember exactly. “Katie, you cut your hair? Why? It was so nice long.”

“Yeah, Shiro, I had to cut it, but it’s okay it’ll grow back.” Pidge almost cried. Shiro pulled her into a hug. “Shiro, where are they?”

He didn’t respond for a moment, just taking his time to reaffirm that what was in front of him was real.

“I don’t know,” He said looking right at Pidge, “We got separated and my memory is all over the place. I don’t remember much from the—when I was—how long was I gone?”

“Just over a year,” Pidge said. Shiro was surprised, but putting a number to it didn’t help much.

“I have to go to the Garrison,” He said decisively, “I have to tell them about what little I remember.”

“Hate to cut into this family moment? But, um, what do you remember exactly?” Hunk asked from right behind Pidge, where he had been sitting the whole time.

“Well, it’s not much, but we were abducted by aliens. The Galra? I think they were called. They were looking for a weapon called Voltron. They seemed pretty nervous about it, like it’s their weakness.” Shiro looked confused the entire time he spoke, as if the words were scripted but in another language and contained a meaning he just couldn’t fathom.

“I don’t think the Garrison is going to be much help to you,” Pidge commented, standing up to pace around the room and look at all the data she had been collecting on her walls, “You can’t just stroll in there and tell them you were abducted by aliens. They’re going to think you’re nuts.”

“Fine, I guess, but what do you suggest. I have to let someone know in case the Galra attack. Earth cannot be left defenceless and unprepared.” He said adamantly.

“I was telling Hunk earlier that I had been picking up some space chatter about Voltron, but I’ve also picked up some weird things from the desert itself.” Pidge pointed to a list of numbers she had organized in a data table, “I haven’t quite figured out what it means, but it’s recurring and _strong_. I figured it was important.”

“That looks like a Fraunhofer Line,” Hunk said as he grabbed a blank piece of paper and put all the data into a graph. When he was done he showed it to them, “Now, is it just me or does this graph look weirdly like that cliff range.” He pointed to one of the pictures on Pidge’s wall.

“I don’t think you’re crazy at all, Hunk.” Pidge said distractedly looking between the graph and the cliff range in the picture.

“We need to go there,” Shiro said pushing himself to his feet, Pidge rushed to help him stay on his feet.

“Shiro, we can’t go there now. It’s too dark to actually see what we’re looking for and you need to rest!” Pidge argued, “You just got back from missing for an entire year and you got back by crash landing. You need to rest.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” Shiro huffed a laugh, “from what I remember no one could make you sleep, little miss night owl.”

“Shiro.” She scolded.

“Pidge,” He argued back before his voice softened into desperation, “something is telling me that this is too important to wait on—that we _have_ to look at it right now.”

“Fine,” Pidge finally relented,” but I won’t be the one to drag your sorry butt back here when you pass out.”

“Nope, that would be me.” Hunk turned to Shiro, “Hi, the name’s Hunk. I don’t think we were formally introduced, and I was wondering if you could tell me more about these aliens and their plans to take over the Earth. Like is that a happening tomorrow thing and I should call my parents and say goodbye, or is it a I could maybe live a good portion of my life in peace while they slowly but surely make their way to my dear planet. I guess what I’m asking is where are they now, like right now, as in this second how close are they to me?”

“I’m honestly not sure. I don’t remember where I was in relation to Earth when I escaped. Sorry, Hunk.” He did actually look apologetic.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll figure all that out after we check out this cliff range in the middle of the night with nothing but some hand-held flashlights. Shiro, if we die I’m blaming you.” Pidge said sarcastically, regretting it immediately when she saw him wince. “Sorry, I need to keep space in mind.” He nodded absently.

“Let’s get going.”

 ***

Finding the range in the dark was near impossible, but two of them were Galaxy Garrison cadets and they had a graduate with them so they weren’t completely helpless. There wasn’t a class on wilderness survival, but they did all have to be competent in how to use and read a map and compass. They were a handful of hours away from sunrise when they theoretically in the right place. It was the right place on the map, but it was still dark outside so the they didn’t have any actual points of reference for their location.

“Alright,” Pidge managed out through a combination groan and yawn, “the map says there should be a cave forward and slightly to the left. If we find that _maybe_ we can take a nap.”

“Night owl can’t take the late hour adventure?” Shiro teased, but she and Hunk could both see the weariness that clung to Shiro’s every movement and settled itself in his eyes.

“Why does everyone keep associating me with _birds_?” She grumbled while she led the way forward, and slightly to the left.

“I think it’s the glasses,” Shiro teased as a way to distract himself and them from fatigue, “Did you really steal those from Matt’s room?”

“No,” Pidge huffed in annoyance, “I actually need these, rude. You can look at them when _we actually have light_ and you can see that there are actual lenses in here.”

“I believe you.” Shiro admitted defeat for the time being.

Which was for the best since they were approaching the cave Pidge had been hopefully guiding them to.

“I’m gonna need some serious extra credit from Iverson for being able to guide us to a vague location while in the dark.” Pidge stated proudly. Hunk smiled encouragingly, but his eyes kept flicking to the cave behind her, “Hunk, we haven’t even gone in yet.”

“I get that, but if I thought it was dark out here in the desert, man oh man is it really dark in there.” Hunk rambled, “Which by the way, you are so right, Pidge, the sky out here is great for stargazing. Maybe we could stay out here awhile and look at them and wait for day break. Oh I know! We would take a nap while we wait for day break! _Then_ we could check out the creepy dark cavern that seems to have a creepy monster carved _literally everywhere_ on the walls and—oh, they’re on the ceiling to—how delightful.”

“I know you two are tired, but we have to find what it is. It feels even more urgent now, like we’re so close.” Shiro distractedly tried to encourage them as he headed into the cave, but the only encouragement Pidge and Hunk would have needed was Shiro walking ahead of them. They weren’t going to let him wander around by himself, that was just plain irresponsible.

“Wow, Pidge, those are some really good flashlights. They’re so bright.” Hunk said appreciating the ability to see the ground better, that would also mean he could see the walls better but he was willing to risk that.

“Uh, Hunk buddy? Those aren’t my flashlights.” Pidge said hesitantly. Hunk’s heart rate spiked as he finally took his eyes off the ground. The walls were glowing, more specifically the carvings on the walls were glowing a bluish-white color.

“It’s a lion. It’s a blue lion?” Shiro questioned. Ancient carvings usually tended to have a more symbolic meaning than literal, there was no way that a blue lion could have existed.

The floor beneath them started to fracture and crack, dropping down a chute beneath the floor. The broken pieces of stone took Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk with them down the worst water-rock slide they had ever been on. When they finally came to a smoother landing than they had been expecting they all noticed a giant blue and white mechanical lion sitting before them surrounded by a force field.

Shiro walked up to the force field, tapping it gentle to see what is was made out of.

“I see where you get the ‘poking dangerous things’ tendency,” Hunk muttered to Pidge. She didn’t pay attention to him, instead she kept her eyes forward on the force field as it disappeared. The motion of the lion lowering it’s head to open it’s mouth caught Hunk’s attention so he kept his mouth shut while the giant robot lion did it’s thing. Shiro was about to step in when the floor of the lion’s mouth opened up to reveal a boy frozen in a tube. He was no older than Hunk and had dark skin and hair, but had sky blue markings underneath his eyes.

The glass surrounding the boy slid away, ending whatever program it had been running to keep the boy asleep since the boy started stretching like he was waking up from a nap. It took several moments of this guy going about his morning stretching routine before he even bothered to open his eyes. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk felt weird just standing there watching like creeps, but saying something felt even more strange, so they just suffered through the awkwardness.

When the boy finally opened his eyes he froze immediately upon noticing the strangers. He tried to say something, but none of them understood what it was. The boy didn’t lose his enthusiasm as he tried to speak again but much slower and a little louder. When that didn’t work he held up a finger for them to wait a moment before going deeper into the giant lion robot. The mouth of the lion snapped shut and the eyes glowed a bright golden yellow, all three humans took several steps away from the now awake giant blue lion robot. The head lowered and the mouth opened up again to reveal the boy strolling down the walkway.

“Let’s try that again. My name is Lance, I’m an Altean Paladin of Voltron and I assume you are here to tell me Zarkon has been defeated, or is close to it? How long was I in cryosleep?”

No one said a word. For a very long time.

It was a lot to process.

There was a giant lion robot standing in front of them with its alien pilot.

“Welp, I don’t know if you were already planning on skipping classes tomorrow, Pidge,” Hunk spoke first after several silent minutes, “but I sure am now.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I wrote the first chapter in one sitting so it took longer to get the second one actually written.   
> What's an update schedule? I don't know
> 
> Oh, also, there is a reason why sometimes the lions are and are not capitalized.

You could have asked Hunk and Pidge five minutes later or five years later about what happened next, but either way the answer would be the same. They had no idea. No idea how they had ended up agreeing to not only get in the robot lion, but to launch themselves into space. That’s right, no plan, no prep, nothing but the clothes on their back. What could possibly go wrong?

After the shock of everything, the story would have gone vaguely along the lines of once they got the whole “we can’t be the aliens if we live on this planet” ordeal sorted with it led to Lance insisting they come with him. There were large words thrown around that might have just been alien jargon that they didn’t know the meaning of. Hunk thinks that Pidge tried to insert some common sense that went along the lines of “hey shouldn’t we go back and grab supplies,” but arguing with Lance was like arguing with a child.

And then that’s where it’s the fuzziest. 

In the rush of arguing and trying to prove a point some how they all ended up in space.

“I’m beginning to think you did that on purpose,” Pidge said from the back of the Lion’s cockpit. They hadn’t been given warning so Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro had not properly braced themselves and had gotten tossed back like rag dolls, or action figures. 

“We were taking too long and I have to go,” Lance said, the mirth they had quickly become accustomed to had completely vanished. He sped them all through the solar system, dodging through the asteroid belt like it hadn’t even been there. Pidge was in awe of how easily he was able to fly, Lance must have been the best pilot to his people.

“Wait,” Pidge smooshed their face against the cockpit window. “Is that Kerberos? It takes our fastest ship months to get out this far and here we are minutes later? That’s amazing!”

“I remember the most of the mission,” Shiro said, standing next to Pidge, gazing at the small moon. “We were kidnapped. Somehow.”

“Could it possibly be by that ship over there?” Hunk asked nervously, pointing to what he would describe as a massive aircraft carrier for space, but bigger than that because this was space. Lance’s head whipped around so fast Hunk was certain that he snapped something.

“Galra.” He muttered angrily, “We have to get out of here before the notice us. I am in no condition to fight with them.” 

“Well, it might be too late for that since they’re coming this way,” Hunk added helpfully, and it was actually helpful because Lance had been so focussed on their path ahead that he hadn’t noticed the slight change in direction that was leading the Galra to them.

“Oh, quiznack,” Lance said as he gunned his lion forward again in hopes of getting away.

“Wait!” Pidge yelled, making everyone jump slightly. “It looks like they’re headed to Earth, it’s the only inhabited planet in this system. Lance, you have to distract them and get them to leave.”

“I get that, but I can’t do much without the other paladins.” Lance gritted out, to make his point he dodged the laser cannons that were being shot in their direction.

“You have to do something! Earth holds seven billion people and countless other fauna and flora.” Pidge urged gripping the Blue Paladin’s seat.

“Quiznack,” He muttered again. Lance continued to dodge the laser blasts as he turned his lion around and charged the Galra ship. The Blue Lion did some serious damage with her claws tearing up the sides and firing at those weak points with a laser cannon in her tail, “Alright, help over I have to go now.”

The Galra ship was no condition to continue, there were chunks missing and smoke trailing out the holes from where there was still oxygen feeding fires. Lance turned tail and left the wreckage behind.

“I wonder if they saw that on Earth?” Pidge wondered aloud. No one answered.

They continued on in silence until a wormhole appeared in front of them.

“This might feel a little weird, but you will all be fine I promise you.” Lance stated, he seemed too distracted to be actually talking to them. The three humans kept any concerns they might have had to themselves, but settled for shared worried looks. They were in space, farther than any human had ever managed to venture, with an alien, going through a magically looking portal to who knew where, in a giant robot lion. 

Yup, just an average day.

 ***

The planet they had found at the other end of the portal was nice, like worthy of a resort to be built there nice. The plants were lushish, the breeze was comforting, and there might have been an ocean in the distance. If this is where the three of them were going to have to stay with some aliens then they were will to take one for the team. They didn’t get a whole lot of time to enjoy the scenery because Lance was on a mission.

As soon as the Blue Lion’s paws touched down Lance was out of his chair and on the ground waiting for them to follow, which they did just at a much slower much more hesitant pace.

“I understand that this is all new for you, but you need to keep up with me,” Lance said, authority seeping back in his voice. The Blue Lion roared, causing the humans to flinch, Lance seemed to notice their discomfort, “Welcome to the Castle of Lions!” His demeanor changed again to a warm and open host, guiding them into the building as the doors opened.

“Welcome back, Lance; Ambassador and Blue Paladin of Voltron. Logging new visitors of species unknown.” Said the flash of blue lights that scanned them as soon as they had entered. 

“We’ll get you into the system as soon as I take damage control of the castle,” Lance said leading them down hallways that had lights automatically flickering on. Which totally did creep out the humans, well Shiro wasn’t creeped out by that too busy trying to remember the layout of the castle, and well Pidge wasn’t creeped out either since she was too distracted trying to guess the size of the people who lived in the castle since the lions were big but the stairs were so much smaller in comparison. Hunk resigned himself that it was just him, but sometimes he was right, he just hoped this was not one of those times.

They hallways finally led to a seemingly chamber. Lance confidently strode to the middle of it where a podium rose out of the floor and instantly displayed information in symbols only Lance could read. He pressed a couple of buttons and two columns rose out of the floor, but they weren’t normal columns.

“Oh _ my gods, are those people? _ ” Hunk wheezed out, “Are they  _ dead _ ? I don’t want to be next!”

Lance ignored him, instead he walked over the one that held a young woman, who looked like she could be Lance’s sister except for the difference in hair color and Lance’s skin was actually a little bit lighter than hers. Okay so they did not look like they could be related now that the glass panel had opened and Hunk could see her better.

“Father!” The young woman gasped and fell into Lance’s arms. Shiro rushed forward to try and help them. Only for the young woman to pop back up, pinch the tip of Shiro’s ear, spin him around, and pin him to the pod-thing she had just come out of. “Who are you and how did you get into my castle?” She demanded.

“Princess!” Lance shouted, “They’re with me!” 

“Lance?” She stiffened, dropping Shiro’s ear she spun on her heel to look at the other Altean, “Lance!” She threw herself at him, pulling him tightly into a hug. “Where am I?”

“Right here in my arms.” Lance said with a smirk, the young woman scoffed and pushed him away. “We’re on the planet Arus.”

“Arus, what a good planet. Just starting out with life,” A new voice spoke from behind them all. The humans jumped startled by the man with bright orange hair and matching mustache. As startled as Hunk was by the man appearing out of his own pod, he was so thankful that they had a real adult with them. He was eighteen, Shiro a little older than him, and he assumed Lance and the young woman were not minors, but having an adult-adult was a nice comfort.

“That’s one of the problems,” Lance said hesitantly, “I’m not sure how long we’ve been asleep.” The young woman raced to the podium and poked at some more buttons.

“No,” She whispered, “We’ve been asleep for ten thousand years.”

“That’s not possible!” Lance argued, “Someone from Altea should have woken us up before now. I should have woken up before now! Why didn’t I wake up?” 

“Lance, I don’t know where the others are. One lion cannot stand up against Zarkon’s—”

“Zarkon?” Shiro said suddenly.

“Yes, he was the emperor ten thousand years ago.” The oranged haired man said.

“No,” Shiro said with great confusion, “No, he’s still emperor. He—he’s the one that kidnapped me, and my crew.” 

“That’s not possible.” 

“Who—who are you people?” Shiro managed to get out, he looked like he was suffering a massive headache.

“I am Princess Allura of Altea, daughter of King Alfor,” The young woman, Allura, said with her shoulders back and head held high.

“My name is Coran, also of Altea, I was King Alfor’s Advisor,” The orange haired man said, adding a small bow at the end.

“And I am Lance, Altean Ambassador and Blue Paladin of Voltron,” Lance said, even though everyone already knew who he was. There was a moment of silence.

“Well, I’m Hunk, this is Pidge, and that’s Shiro,” Hunk said, motioning to his friends, “We’re from Earth, yeah that’s about it.” He shrugged running out of steam.

“It is a pleasure to meet you all,” Allura said, “and thank you for offering your help. First thing we need to do is find the other lions.” She left the chamber without further adue and the rest of them just kind of followed her.

“Wait, ‘volunteer’?” Hunk asked Pidge while they made their way through the long empty hallways, “We didn’t volunteer for this!”

“You were the ones to find the Blue Lion,” Coran said over his shoulder, “From that moment your fates have been tied to Voltron. Connected events that led to you ‘volunteering’ to help us.” 

“I prefer to be explicitly asked if I would like to volunteer,” Hunk said, playing nervously with his fingers, “Maybe I could yell ‘I volunteer’ like in that one movie, but I would also like the option to say no ‘thank you’.” 

“If the Blue Lion didn’t trust all of you than she wouldn’t have opened at all,” Lance said, “You will make a great paladin and will help restore peace to the universe.”

Hunk figured he was trying to be encouraging, but that just freaked Hunk out even more. That was a lot of pressure to put on someone who could barely be in a plane without wanting to throw up and kiss land, sweet solid reliable sturdy ground. 

They made it to the command room just in time for Allura to send them on their way to get the other lions. Except the red lion, she hadn’t found that one yet.

If they were already down two lions, the black one being locked away, surely they could manage without him being the yellow paladin. Despite this thought parading it’s way through Hunk’s brain, he got back into the Blue Lion so he and Lance could go get the yellow one. Maybe he could negotiate a catch and release sort of deal, get the yellow lion without having to actually be the yellow paladin.

“In your dreams, Hunk,” He mumbled to himself as Lance took off again, and Hunk tried not to lose it.

 ***

It was the worst field trip ever. The yellow lion had been hidden on what had become a Galra occupied planet. It had been the worst. The worst. It had been the worst and they were still down a lion.

“Paladins, while you were gone I found the Red Lion,” Allura said from her pedestal in the command room, hands on the two control, stick things. 

“Perfect!” Lance said, smiling brightly at Allura, “Just like you, princess.” 

She didn’t acknowledge him.

“It looks like it’s in the hands of the Galra,” Allura said nervously, bringing up on the map where the red lion was located in the heart of a Galra fleet. The room fell quiet for a long moment. No one wanted to fight the Galra before they had all the lions and were able to form Voltron. They didn’t have training, Hunk and Pidge were only cadets that at this point would not get the chance to finish. Shiro had training in space, just being in space could be counted as training. Lance was the only one with Paladin training. But even still, they didn’t training as a team and were already down a team member. Right off the bat they were at a disadvantage. Hunk didn’t like that.

“Do you think the Red Paladin is still in cryosleep?” Lance asked carefully. Allura tensed slightly, focussing a moment. 

“I cannot find any sign of life in the red lion. It is unlikely that he has survived this long,” Allura said, brow knit but she turned to face Lance, “Lance, even if he is still there we need to proceed with caution.”

“We need to get the Red Lion,” Lance stated determinedly, his face was pinched with worry.

“Not yet,” Allura countered him evenly, “we are going to train the Paladins we have now. We are going to work on the castle until we are ready to leave. We are not going to go get the red lion until I deem that we are ready.” 

“But what if he’s there too,” Lance continued pushing.

“There is no sign of life in the red lion,” Allura stated again.

“You know they have the same technology that we did. He could be alive with them,” Lance’s voice raised in volume throughout his sentence.

“And if he is? That means he is most likely working with them!” Allura matched his volume.

“He would never!” Lance yelled.

“It’s been ten thousand years, Lance, the Galra have taken over most of the known universe and destroyed our planet,” Allura yelled back, “We will proceed with caution.”

“He’s a paladin,” Lance hissed. The random drop in volume left everyone’s ears ringing.

“So was Zarkon,” Allura countered, “and look at where we are.”

Lance stalked out of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should get out of the habit of writing this in one sitting, but eh where's the fun in that? If you're not familiar with my style of writing it involves a good deal of angst
> 
> I do tend to skim over or not show scenes so if you want me to expand on or fill in something just let me know and I can do that!
> 
> Edit: the word count was bothering me so I added a word...

After the face off in the command room Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk agreed to hide out in one of the lounges, that just so happened to have a kitchen attached to it. They had no idea what else they were supposed to be doing. Coran had shown them their rooms, but being the only humans on an alien planet it turned out none of them wanted to be alone.

So twiddling their thumbs in the lounge was their current pass time. Hunk was going through the cabinets trying to discern what was food and what was cleaning supplies, it was not going very well. Shiro paced around the room, occasionally pausing to look at his arm. Pidge was very contentedly poking around with the technology that was in the room, but keeping out of the kitchen portion because she knew Hunk would kill her if she ruined the appliances.

“So,” Pidge started, elbows deep in some sort of tech, “are we going to talk about what happened earlier?”

“It’s rude to pry, Katie,” Shiro chided.

“I get that, but you have to admit that there were definitely some high emotions,” Pidge finished.

“Yes, but we are not going to push the topic. We are going to wait until they come to us with that information,” Shiro said, finally sitting on one of the couches to watch what Pidge was doing on the floor.

“Fine, fine, fine, but—” Pidge cut herself off as Lance walked into the room, he still looked glum but marginally better than he had before.

“Hi, guys,” He said subdued, waving to them awkwardly, “I realized that it would be rude of me to leave you all by yourselves so, what are you all up to?”

The humans looked at each other. Each of their looks conveyed something very different, but Shiro’s warning was not enough to deter Pidge.

“We were talking about what happened in the command room earlier,” Pidge blurted out before anyone could actually stop her. Shiro hid his face in his hand, Hunk just avoided eye contact with all his might. Lance tensed slightly, fidgeted a bit, but didn’t leave, to Pidge that held the promise of answers.

“We were more concerned about how the Galra got their hands on the red lion.” Shiro tried to edge conversation more towards technical aspects rather than the complicated emotions that were shown.

“Oh, that,” Lance relaxed a small bit and took a seat next to Shiro, “well you see, the Red Paladin was the Ambassador for the Galra and he had to go on an emergency diplomatic meeting to try and avoid what eventually happened. He was in that area when everything fell apart, so he was either ambushed while doing his job or he was found over the last ten thousand years.”

“Well, it’s been ten thousand years,” Pidge said, thinking out loud, “the odds cannot be good that the red paladin is still alive.” Shiro put his face back in his hand.

“He _has_ to be alive,” Lance stressed, “As you bond with your Lions you develop a strong connection with not only your own lion but with the other Lions as well. It’s something you’ll feel when we form Voltron. If he weren’t alive I would feel it, for many reasons. He _has_ to be _alive_.”

“I mean, you, Allura, and Coran are alive so I guess the possibility exists, but not a good one.” Pidge continued to theorize, it wasn’t meant for anyone in particular but Lance could still hear it. Lance did not want to hear it.

“Shut your quiznack,” He snapped. Not knowing what that meant the humans kept quiet for a moment.

“Wait a minute,” Lance said, breaking the silence he created, “That’s exactly it! That’s how we’ll get the Red Lion!” He looked so excited, but no one could match it because they had no idea what was going on.

“So, like, I know I got lost around ‘quiznack’,” Hunk said carefully from across the room, “but what does that have to do with getting the red lion? Is quiznack a weapon? Are we going to be given quiznacks so we can fight the Galra? We are going to get training before that right? Because I don’t know human weapons very well, let alone alien weapons. Are all alien weapons space ships? How are we supposed to fly the lions and a quiznack at the same time?”

“No, no,” Lance ended Hunk’s rambling when the Yellow Paladin took a breath, “No, I’m going to use my connection to the Red Lion to fly her out of there! The most dangerous part of that plan is that we would have to carry Red as dead weight, but if she’ll let me I can fly her out and watch my own tail.”

“But wouldn’t that require you to actually be on the ship? That sounds pretty dangerous,” Shiro commented, fully engrossed in planning for the potential mission.

“I mean, we don’t know where exactly on the ship the Red Lion is, so we’d have to be there to search for her anyway.” Lance elaborated for the group, “The most dangerous part would be having to get back to your own lion and then go back and pick up the Red Lion, but this way we don’t have to.”

“And you can fly red because you’re an original paladin?” Pidge questioned, more curious than anything.

“Um, something like that,” Lance’s enthusiasm dimmed slightly, “It’s not something I’m ready to talk about yet.”

“I can’t imagine what you’re experiencing, Lance. Waking up after so long and after so much change. I am sorry for your loss.” Shiro said, trying to make peace.

“Thanks, Shiro,” Lance said softly, accepting Shiro’s olive branch, or whatever the Altean equivalent was. “We have a lot of training ahead of us.”

***

As soon as Allura heard Lance’s plan she had immediately sent them to their Lions for training. She had decided that it would be a good idea to take care of two tasks at once by locking the paladins out of the castle for training and testing the castle’s defense system. It would have been nice if they could have started off with something smaller, since two of the new paladins were not pilots, and one of those two got sick just being in a ship let alone piloting a giant yellow cat lion in gymnastic formations in order to dodge real life lasers that could actually hurt him. Hunk was kind of hoping that Alteans had air sick bags circa ten thousand years ago.

Lance made training look easy. He was the demo video that got played to show what the perfect, best case scenario for an activity. Hunk and Pidge, on the other hand, were the real life attempts and application of that video. They were awkward on the controls, slow at dodging the lasers, and were more likely to hit each other than the targets they were supposed to be aiming for. Despite the fact that Lance was carrying Hunk and Pidge through the exercise there was no way that he could complete it without actual help, help that the new paladins could not provide.

Pidge didn’t consider herself particularly religious, but an hour later when the lasers stopped and the particle barrier dropped she was about ready to convert.

“Alright, guys,” Lance called on the comm system, “Let’s call it in for now. I think we can try a different training exercise for the rest of the day.”

“More training?” Hunk asked weakly, sounding very clearly like he was about to be sick. As it had turned out Alteans had not discovered the convenience of an air sick bag for their giant robots.

“Um, or we can hang out with each other and call it bonding exercises,” Lance said thinking on his feet to accommodate their air sick teammate.

“I would really appreciate that,” Hunk heaved a sigh, shifting the controls to lead the way to the castle that was no longer trying to kill them. Maybe “kill” was a strong word, but Hunk had felt like he had been about to die so it was close enough, right? Right.

Shiro was waiting for them in the command room, he was the only one there thankfully.

“That wasn’t a bad start,” Shiro said evenly, smiling encouragingly at them, “For two people who aren’t trained to fly you definitely got better the longer you were out there.”

“Save it, Shiro,” Pidge grumbled, “We know it wasn’t that great.”

“Doesn’t mean you didn’t improve at all,” Shiro persisted, teasing them he added, “and you have to trust me on that because I’m a professional.”

“Professional what?” Lance asked, trying to start conversation. He had been hoping to do some bonding through just simply talking. Bonding with one’s Lion was important but so was bonding as a team. Voltron was a combination of them the four of them, their determination, their fight, their hope, their consciousness. To not know a team member was to ignore a limb of one own’s body.

“I was a professional pilot at our planet’s Galaxy Garrison. I was assigned to the first expedition to Kerberos, the moon of our farthest planet.” Shiro said, fighting to sound normal as he spoke. Shiro felt strung out and tired.

Pidge suddenly felt guilty that Shiro had yet to get any downtime between being kidnapped, being rescued, and being tossed back out into space to fight. She almost immediately stopped feeling guilty since it was Shiro who had pushed them to seek out the Blue Lion without supplies in the first place. Shiro had pushed them out here, but he had been under duress and a self-imposed time crunch.

If he had a moment to think about it he would realize that there was very clearly a reason for these feelings, unfortunately his brain was just a touch too singularly focussed and could not deal with his new requirements while coping with his missing year. He had proven himself at the Garrison and pushed himself through the ranks, securing a spot on the Kerberos mission. History would have been made, at this point history had still been made but they weren’t the headlines that he had been hoping for.

“My brother and dad were on the mission with him,” Pidge said, taking over the task of telling personal stories, “I’ve been looking for them since. I was told that they were dead due to piloting error, but the story never sat right with me. I got kicked out of the program, I was caught snooping. I had to reenlist in the cadet program under a fake name.”

“I was helping Pidge look for information,” Hunk said, “Well, I actually hadn’t started helping yet when we found Shiro, he crash landed to Earth the same night we found you, which was actually the same night that I had agreed to help Pidge.”

“So your planet has a program in place already to fight Zarkon, that’s good.” Lance commented approvingly. It worried him that Pidge and Hunk were still so inexperienced but at least they had some training that would help them.

“What? No.” Pidge said, confused by what Lance had said, “We didn’t know Zarkon or the Galra were a thing until we met you. I heard about Voltron from long distance radio chatter I picked up, but to humans Earth is the only planet in the universe that carries intelligent life.”

Lance froze in place at Pidge’s words. They had no training for combat and their planet was nowhere near the position where they could even begin a program like that. They were completely unprepared for what lied ahead.

“Paladins!” Allura yelled running into the command room, “It’s good to see that you completed your training—”

“Actually, the castle stopped attacking us so we came inside,” Hunk said without thinking.

“What?” Allura raced over to her command podium, “I’ll need Coran to fix that right away. Unfortunately, we don’t have any more time for training there is a Galra fleet headed to Arus.”

“They must have noticed the change in activity and are coming to check it out,” Lance said thinking logically, “We should be fine so long as we keep our activity low and turn our energy off. They’ll think it’s a false alarm from an abandoned castle.”

“As much as I would love to think that would work, I highly doubt that the conquerors of the universe bring a whole fleet to inspect a power anomaly,” Hunk reasoned, “They must know we’re here.”

They had now reached the part of the conversation where no one had anything else important or constructive to say, and saying anything less than important or constructive seemed awkward, so they said nothing at all and just started at each other hoping someone else would speak first.

“The good news is,” Coran said, walking determinedly into the room with his nose buried in his data pad, “the fleet shouldn’t be here for another three vargas. Which should be enough time to prepare the castle and squeeze in some more training.”

“Tell us what we have to do,” Shiro said, his face was tight with determination and concentration.

***

Allura had handed out jobs for them all to do. No one hesitated to complete their tasks. There was no room for hesitation. They hadn't gotten too much time to train, but here the Galra were so what little Hunk and Pidge had learned from the Garrison would have to carry them through. Lance and Allura were the last two left in the command room. Allura was running last minute diagnostics on the castle's systems. Lance was supposed to be checking the different cannon stations around the castle, but he was stalling. He had time, and he had to talk to Allura.

"Your highness," Lance said respectfully, bowing deeply.

"Paladin Lance, is there a problem," Allura asked distractedly, eyes flitting over the screen in a way that only came with long hours of practice. They had both been prepared for this, she had been raised to lead no matter who it was she led.

"It's not directly a problem," Lance poked around the issue he wanted to bring up, but that was per his style, "but it may be something to keep in mind for the future."

"Proceed."

"The humans, our new paladins, have no experience. Two of them aren't even trained to be pilots," Lance stood directly in front of his Princess, "Before they found me they didn't know about the Galra. Princess, their planet is not yet aware of the fact that there is intelligent life in the universe, they think they're alone!"

"I am going to need your point soon, Ambassador, or I will need to ask you to continue with your tasks," Allura moved the screens she had been reading intently to the side so she could look at Lance unobscured.

"They are not us and they are not yet paladins, of course I mean that with no disrespect," He said, bowing slightly, "They were not raised for this and have not been trained accordingly. This is dangerous and we are under prepared."

"I understand that and I dearly wish we weren't, but we do not have much of a choice," Allura said, pulling back up some of the charts she had been looking at, "The castle is not flight ready, our particle barrier couldn't even last long enough for your training session, half of the inner workings of the castle are broken due to pure disuse I don't know how effectively we can fight back from here, in addition to the fact that two of my three paladins have not piloted before they stepped foot in their own Lions. Yes, Lance, I know that this is dangerous and we are unprepared, but what am I able to do about it."

"Run." Lance said simply, "Focus on getting the Red Lion, as both a plan and a distraction tactic, then get the castle out of here while they're fighting nothing for Red. All I would need is for someone to drop me off. That would keep our new paladins out of harms way and gets the castle away so we can train and fight another day."

"No," Allura said harshly, "Running is what caused these problems in the first place."

"That and we lost our Black Paladin," Lance muttered.

"And our red paladin." Allura reminded him.

"We don't know that for sure," Lance argued back. Allura moved the screens to the side again, stepping off the pedestal to speak earnestly with Lance.

"I know you want him alive, but if he is still alive then why does the Galra still have the red lion? I would prefer to think of him as having not made it than the only other alternative." Allura outlined her logic.

"An alternative would be that he was captured while doing his job," Lance argued, getting heated quickly, "You know the depth of his loyalty."

"It is not the depth of his loyalty that concerns me, it is who he is loyal to. As you well know the Galra tend to put their loyalty in their leaders," Allura stated with finality.

"Allura," Lance said warningly. 

"This castle is not fit to fly, let alone leave this atmosphere. Two of my paladins don't have enough flight experience to add up to a full quintant. We cannot form Voltron and have no leads as to where we can find a red paladin once we do have the red lion." The Princess summarized, "I do not have time to theorize about this."

"If he were dead I would have felt it."

"You were in cryosleep, Lance, no one feels anything." Allura pointed out, "You don't even dream."

"Allura," Lance said desperately, "I just said good bye to him, what feels like, yesterday. I  _need_ him to be alive."

She grabbed his hands to pull him into a tight hug.

"I know." She whispered.

***

Preparing the castle for defense was not at all like Hunk had pictured in his mind, though he understood that there were going to be a huge difference between the castles he knew on Earth and this Castle of Lions. It was a lot less of “let’s build a barricade” and a lot more of “we have a ton of wiring to do to get the particle barrier back up” which he guessed was kind of equivalent of building a barricade. But a futuristic barricade. So it was still cool, and it was in an area of study that Hunk excelled at.

If he understood Altean technology at all he probably could have fixed the whole system himself, but alas he there wasn’t enough time for him to try and hardcore fix the outdated systems. There would only be enough time to learn the basics and questionably complete basic tasks that Coran gave to him, and would occasionally have to complete with supervision. Which defeated the purpose of Hunk offering his help, but he guessed that the experience he was getting counted for something.

Hunk and Coran had just gotten the readings of the particle barrier to be in a theoretically good place when the alarm started blaring.

“Oh no,” Hunk murmured, “Please don’t mean—”

“Paladins!” Allura’s voice sounded over the speakers placed throughout the castle, “The Galra are going to be here in a matter of vargas. Finish your tasks then prepare yourselves.”

“Coran!” Hunk called out, “I thought you said we had three days!”

“Three what?” Coran yelled back from wherever he was working, with the amount of echo off all the metals he really could have been anywhere.

“Three days!”

“I most certainly did not say that!” Coran said loudly, walking in Hunk’s direction. “What’s a day?” Coran muttered.

“Oh my—quintants! You said we had three quintants!” Hunk yelled, working faster on whatever piece of machinery Coran had put in front of him.

“Oh, well,” Coran was now working on something near Hunk, “Finger counting is more an art than a science.”

“That ‘art’ cost us two days preparation!” Hunk grumbled. “Now all we have are vargas. What are vargas?” He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket that had the different words for time scribbled on it, hours. They had a matter of hours to try and fix the barrier that couldn’t even hold up for their training session.

Fantastic.

***

It was a few hours later that all the paladins were sitting cozy in their respective lions, except for Shiro who couldn’t get his lion without them getting the red lion. Did they have to have the paladin too? Was kidnapping protocol for getting new paladins? Hunk didn’t think he’d be able to kidnap anyone.

“Alright paladins, it seems as though we might have gotten lucky,” Allura spoke to them through a comm system in their helmets, “It appears that the red lion is on this fleet’s main ship, which is not advancing with the rest of the fleet.”

“That’s not ideal, but I think we can work with that,” Lance said from the Blue Lion, “New plan: Shiro take one of the Altean pods and sneak aboard their main ship. You’re going to have to be our search team, when you find Red call me and I’ll pick you both up. Can you do that?”

“I can do that,” Shiro confirmed, “I’ll wait until the fleet is thoroughly distracted before I leave.”

“Sounds good.” Lance finished confirming the new plan when Allura joined back in.

“Shiro be careful,” Allura said, absently checking over the systems again, “Paladins, stay safe and take care of each other. One of the most important parts of being a paladin is making taking care of each other a priority. I know we haven’t gotten in much training, but let your Lions guide you when you feel lost and you will find a new way.”

As she finished the atmosphere started raining down Galra attack ships.

Hunk really wanted that air sick bag right about now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this chapter longer, but I feel like it's kinda heavy so I cut it down a little? Looking over everything I'm not 100% sure how I've gotten this far without really mentioning Keith (but I find that funny). I was trying to keep this at least some what aligned with the show, but I'm giving up on that for the most part and just running with it.
> 
> Finally: Thank you to everyone who has commented, left kudos, bookmarked, or subscribed! I think this is the biggest reaction I've ever had for a story and it's definitely keeping me pushing to the end of this (wherever that is). It's taken me by surprise, but I am so very appreciative! Your reactions were very much unexpected

Purple.

Shiro was getting really tired of the color purple.

He couldn’t remember the exact reason as to why he hated the color purple but the monotonous lighting made him want to scream. The footsteps of sentries coming down the hallway was what calmed him down, not exactly a lullaby but he wouldn’t object to getting a recording of it to help him sleep. 

Then he remembered flashes of faces and emotions.

Shiro remembered counting sentries steps to learn their routine. They were robots so they made no variation in their movements or step size, and were in perfect scinque with each other. That would come in handy as Shiro manually searched through all the logical places to keep a giant robot. With seeing how big each of the lions were individually he wondered how big Voltron would be once it was put together. Massive, was the easy answer. The less easy answer would be to try and think of Voltron having a fighting chance against the Galra command ships, then assume it is some what proportional in comparison. Or he could just try to imagine all the lions stacked on top of each other.

The footsteps faded away. Shiro took this opportunity to make a mad dash for his next hiding spot before the next round of sentries came into the area. The command ship was huge, there was no way he was going to be able to do a proper search by himself, there was also no way he would be able to call on anyone to help him. Coran had barely had the time to see him off with the last snippets of advice he could offer before running back to his battle position in the command room. With a vague idea about his glowing arm and no bayard like the others Shiro knew he was going to have to improvise at least a little bit. He just hadn’t realised how much.

He didn’t know how much time was passing as he raced through the maze of purple hallways. Time seemed as endless as the turns he was taking and the hiding spots he had to hind. It was when he had accidentally doubled back that he felt something. It felt like something was poking him in the stomach, but not so much a poke in as it was a tug in a certain direction. Shiro had no better lead to follow than the random feeling, a wordless game of hot or cold.

This feeling led him to a door a few hallways away from where he had been, he hadn’t yet made it to this part of the ship. Using the Galra tech arm he opened the door and ducked inside as he heard the familiar sound of sentry footsteps coming his way. 

Logically, Shiro knew that he was looking for a giant robot lion and he really shouldn’t have to do any more looking once he found the room, but he also wasn’t used to things being that easy. Given his luck the red lion was the only one with the ability to shrink and Shiro would have to go searching through crate after crate in order to find it.

He was wrong, of course. The red lion was sitting in the middle of a relatively empty hanger in all of it’s liony glory, the parts of her he knew to be red were tinted purple from the god awful lighting. There was particle barrier around it, the barrier would have been blue in  _ normal _ lighting but the nauseating purple lights tinted that too. Shiro was not a fan. His reasoning, though, was the sooner he called Lance the sooner he could get out of there.

“Hey there, red,” Shiro said, more to himself than to the lion. He put his hand to the barrier wondering for a brief moment if he would be able to fly the red lion out of there like Lance had been planning on doing. Shiro tried to open his mind to the lion, invite its conscious in with welcoming thoughts, but after several minutes and a headache he really just felt foolish.

“Okay,” Shiro said undeterred, “Plan B. Lance, I found the red lion.”

***

“ _ Lance, I found the red lion,” _ Shiro’s voice buzzed in Lance’s ear. Lance would have definitely paid more attention to it had he not been distracted by all the lasers being shot at him. What could he say? In the last ten thousand years the Galra had become much better shots and now actually posed a threat to his well being. 

“I copy that, Shiro, but I don’t know when exactly I’ll be able to get you and Red out of there.” Lance radioed back. Lance knew he had been shouting, but was once again endlessly thankful that their radio system had an automatic volume adjuster in place so Shiro wouldn’t hear Lance yelling, but insteading talking at a normal volume. Who had time to think about things like what volume you were yelling at when there were hundreds of Galra attack ships trying to kill you.  _ And weren’t doing that bad of a job. _

Lance, Hunk, and Pidge so far had been able to contain most of the fire to the upper parts of the planet’s atmosphere, in order to protect the life on the planet. Anything that fell would burn up, theoretically. Hopefully. On second thought maybe they should start pushing the fight higher into the atmosphere much much much closer to the space side. That seemed like a better idea.

“ _ I’m locking onto Shiro’s coordinates. Whenever you’re ready, Lance _ ,” Allura’s voice informed him, “ _ Try pushing farther out to draw the Galra away before you break off _ .”

“Copy that,” Lance confirmed, he didn’t wait to hear anyone else’s response too busy pushing and shooting his way through the mess of ships that floated between him and Red. Knowing that she was so close made him a little giddy and a lot desperate, he needed the Red Lion. He was focussed. Lance was focussed on getting Red.

So focussed that he didn’t see the Galra attack ship decide to cut their loses and decide to kamikaze itself into him. It sent him spiraling into another unaware Galra ship. He gripped the controls for dear life, he would have been thrown out of his seat if not for his safety belt. In attempts to right his Lion and to stop the spinning for the love of all the deities, he jerked the controls but they didn’t do anything. He was still spiraling, though the rotations were slower he was still spinning.

He screamed in frustration,  jerking the controls again to urge Blue on, trying to encourage her with the promise of being reunited with one of the last Lions of Voltron. Nothing did it. Blue’s lights dimmed slightly to conserve energy and start her healing process. 

“Please, Blue,” Lance pleaded, letting his head fall forward onto his dashboard, “Please, girl, I know you miss them too. You can’t hide anything from me, not after all these years. We’re  _ so close _ .” 

Lance glanced out his window, passively watching the battle around him. Shiro had been right. Pidge and Hunk were doing a lot better the longer they were behind the controls of their own Lions. Should they formally accept their positions they would make wonderful paladins. His gaze drifted over from where he had spun from, finally noticing the carnage he had left behind after that initial attack. The Blue Lion had crashed into and destroyed at least five other ships after the initial shove. No wonder Blue needed time to recover, that was a lot of damage to take.

“We still have to get Shiro out of there,” Lance said to Blue, but she wasn’t listening. He spotted Arus not too far behind him, he had been knocked all the way back. 

He wanted to cry.

There was no way that Blue would be able to make it to the command trip, carry Red,  _ and _ make it back to the castle.

“No!” He screamed, “No! I am  _ not _ going to let Red be this close and lose her!” 

Lance climbed out of his seat and stomped to the back of his Lion’s cabin to grab some supplies. He needed his suit’s extra jetpack booster. No one would approve of this, he wasn’t entirely sure that he was one hundred percent on board with his own plan. It was risky, it would put him and his Lion in danger, he was going to get the lecture of the century when he got back. If he got back. But despite all of that and every part of him warning him to think this through at least a second longer there was a whole different part of Lance telling him that this was the right thing to do. This was what he had to do.

“Alright, girl,” Lance said to Blue, she listened this time knowing something important was about to happen. “I know that you’re hurt and we’re too far from the ship to get you there. You need to get back to the castle. You’re tough you can take the crash through the atmosphere. I’m going to go ahead and get Red and Shiro. I’ll be fine. I promise.”

It was an empty promise.

Lance kneeled over the exit hatch near Blue’s stomach, he attached the extra jets to his suit (had he been human he would have compared himself to Ironman, but it was a wasted joke on the Altean). Blue grumbled with displeasure in Lance’s mind, he could feel how much she hated what he was about to do, but she felt just how strongly he felt he had to. She purred encouragement.

“I’ll see you soon, sweetie,” Lance whispered, barely audible over the hum of her machinery. He opened the hatch and jumped into space. Into the middle of the fight.


	5. Chapter 5

“ _Lance!_ ” Shiro heard Allura call through the comm system. He had not been able to get through the barrier so he had found yet another hiding spot at the back of the barrier. After this mission Shiro had a feeling that he could win any game of hide-and-go-seek hands down.

“ _What happened?_ ” Pidge’s voice asked, “ _I was in the middle of kicking Galra butt_.”

“ _I’m not sure, but communication with Lance is down_ ,” Allura informed them all.

“ _I think I saw that_ ,” Hunk chimed in, “ _He looked fine, but it also looked like he tried to make a mad dash through this heavy cluster of Galra ships and someone hit him. I missed what happened next, but—oh quiznack_!”

Shiro stayed quiet listening to what the others were saying. There wasn’t anything else he could do, he had no lion or ship of any kind. The red lion wasn’t letting him in and it sounded like he was going to be stranded there until further notice. That was dangerous.

“ _Guys! The Blue Lion is falling!_ ” Hunk stressed, “ _It got caught in Arus’s atmosphere and is falling back to the planet! It looks like Blue’s lights have dimmed—I don’t know if Lance is going to make that fall_.”

“ _Shiro_ ,” Allura said carefully, he could hear the gears turning in her head, “ _try to get the red lion to open up to you. She may be your only way off the ship. Pidge and Hunk, keep the Galra distracted and away from the planet. I’m going to go check on Lance. Coran will fight off any stragglers from here_.”

“Allura, is that a good idea?” Shiro questioned, his voice was kept down to a whisper incase any Galra wanted to come into the hanger while he was distracted.

“ _I have to, I can’t lose anyone else_.” She said before she cut off her comm. Shiro wanted to yell at her that it was a terrible idea and they could come up with something better, but he doubted she would listen. If he were in her position he doubted he would listen either. Instead he put his hand back on the red lion’s particle barrier and tried to open it again.

Shiro had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, but that wasn’t going to make him stop. He opened his mind to let the red lion in, he offered up emotions of safety, protection, desperation, teamwork, community, _desperation_. They were both stuck with the Galra until someone else came to get them unless they could work together and bust out of there. He had managed it a first time, apparently, maybe he could pull a second time out of thin air, and the odds should be on his side given that there was no air in space, doesn’t get thinner than that.

Lance had said something about feeling a bond with the lions. Pidge had said that she had felt something that she could quiet explain but was hoping to study later. Hunk seemed too hesitant to be fully on board with forming a permanent connection with his lion, hopefully that would change soon. But Shiro didn’t feeling anything.

He tried to follow the vague directions Lance had talked about, while also adding some ideas that he had picked up from any movie that involved the Chosen One trying to connect with any piece of ancient importance. Open up his mind and try to connect emotionally. Offer pure intent of why he wanted to fly the red lion and reminder that if she didn’t like him then their partnership was only temporary. He tried and did not stop trying.

The only problem was that he felt like he was dumping his mental energy into a void. It felt like he was wandering in the dark, maybe because he had his eyes closed, more likely because he was trying to reach out to a giant sentient robot that hadn’t been interacted with in ten thousand years.

“Please,” Shiro whispered, “We have to work together if you want to get out of here.”

There was no response.

“She won’t open for you,” A hoarse voice said from several feet away. Shiro started, spinning to the side to see who had snuck up on him.

“Lance,” Shiro said, relief flooding through his system. Lance’s armor looked worse for wear, it was scuffed and blackened in some places, “What happened to you? I thought your Lion crashed to Arus.” Lance fidgeted for a second before answering.

“I’m going to save you now and we’re going to promise to not discuss how I got here. Deal?” Lance stuck his hand out for Shiro to shake in agreement.

“Lance,” Shiro said sternly, “I’m not the only one who is going to be asking questions. How did you get here?” His voice carried authority that demanded an answer.

“Oh wow, now I see why you were chosen for the black lion,” Lance commented almost to himself, “Look, I can’t be distracted with your disappointment while I’m trying to bond with Red. I’ll tell you later, all of you later.” Shiro seemed skeptical, but he nodded accepting that answer and motioned for Lance to try what Shiro had failed at.

Lance walked up to the particle barrier and laid his hand on the barrier and closed his eyes just as Shiro had. His face was calm, like it was when Shiro had first found him in the cryopod. That peaceful face didn’t last for very long, it gradually shifted from calm to twitching brows only for Lance’s face to crumple into the picture of distress. Shiro shot forward to pry Lance from the barrier, but as if sensing Shiro’s intentions Lance held up his hand to tell him to back off.

“Lance,” Shiro whispered, he kept his distance with great difficulty.

“Shiro, _stop_ ,” Lance gritted out.

Shiro stepped back in order to respect Lance’s wishes. He almost broke when Lance dropped to his knees, breathing heavy, but hand never leaving the barrier. It was another tense minute before the barrier dropped and Lance finally opened his eyes, they were watery and he looked worn out.

“We need to go. Now.” Lance wheezed out with an angry determination. Shiro could only nod.

***

Lance had never actually flown the Red Lion. He had never had a reason to, but he had had a very strong bond with the Red Paladin and had hoped that the Red Lion would acknowledge that. He had bet everything on the Red Lion honoring that, and he had not been disappointed.

Red let them in.

The flight back to the had been intense, but they had made it and won in pushing the Galra back. But here Lance was, sitting in the command room, completely despondent to the cheerful camaraderie going on around him.

“Lance,” Allura smiles at him sadly, but with hope shining dimly in her eyes, trying to convey everything she wanted to say without having to struggle putting words to the emotions.

“He’s alive, Allura,” Lance whispered.

“We talked about this—”

“I _know_ we’ve talked about this, but I’m telling you…” Lance stuttered at the end, letting his words trail off, “I’m telling you that when I was flying Red I could feel something. I know it was him. He’s alive.”

Allura gave him a sympathetic look.

“Perhaps,” Coran offered hesitantly from the sidelines of their conversation, “they have stored his consciousness? Though not a common practice among the Galra, they do have the technology to do that.”

“That is a much more reasonable theory,” Allura conceded, “Lance, I know that this has been hard on you especially, but we’ve discussed the odds of that. Are you sure it was him _alive_?”

Lance gripped his head between his hands, curling in on himself slightly. The humans in the room felt the jovial mood of the room rise with tension. They had yet to be told who exactly the red paladin was and how that related to Lance _exactly_ , but they weren’t stupid either and knew that whoever the red paladin had been (or was) they were important to Lance. Obviously none of them knew the frustration and pain that came with waking up to a completely different time period, situation, and having lost everything. They didn’t try to pretend they could, even Shiro with his memory issues didn’t think he could relate simply because the Holts could very easily still be alive.

“ _I’m not sure_ ,” Lance relented at last, his breathing was heavy and body tense, “I told you it felt weird and distant, but _familiar_ . I don’t know what’s going on on his end, but it’s _him_.”

“It could very well be an echo.” Coran suggested gently, “You flew red for the first time in ten thousand years. It would make sense for there to be a lingering presence. Especially for you.”

“It felt so real.” Lance said to himself confused.

“What felt very real to me was your communications system going out in the middle of a battle, your Lion crashing to Arus, and you seemingly being nowhere to be found. Would you care to explain that?” Allura had managed to integrate and scold Lance at the same time. Shiro was hoping that he could pick up some tips to help him keep Pidge and Hunk in line while they were in space.

“Oh, right.” Lance plastered a fake smile on his face to try and show all was well, “You see, I refused for Red to be this close and slip away. So when Blue was hit I continued on to get Shiro. No Paladin left behind.” Lance looked to Shiro for support in getting off the hook, but he looked just as disappointed as Allura.

“Continued on how? Exactly.” Shiro asked, ganging up on Lance. He had to agree with Allura in this case.

“Well, there were the extra jets for my suit and I’m a pretty good flyer, if I do say so myself,” Lance said, trying to sweet talk his way out.

“You flew through the battle in nothing but your suit with only some jets to assist you.” Allura stated for clarification. He nodded, “Lance, that is stupid even for you. That was too risky! You could have died!” Lance’s ego deflated and his body reflected that loss of hot air.

“She’s right, Lance.” Shiro said with less heat, more level headed concern, “You could have called on your teammates for help. That’s what we’re here for, helping each other.”

“I don’t know,” Pidge said loud enough for everyone to hear, “Hunk and I were pretty busy, we probably couldn’t have gotten there in enough time to be helpful. Plus neither of us have Lance’s skill, so who knows if we would have been able to make it to the command ship.”

“You’re not helping, Pidge,” Shiro said, sighing with frustration.

“Either way,” Coran jumped in to help smooth things over, “Lance is safe and we have a Black Lion to let out!”

“Coran’s right,” Allura said, finally shifting her focus off the Blue Paladin, “Shiro, let’s go get your Lion.”

***

It had been set up to be a very impressive ceremony-type situation. They had all their Lions lined up in front of these totally massive doors, massive in comparison to the people not the Lions. Each Paladin went ahead and stood next to their respective Lion, except for Lance who stood between Red and Blue, and Shiro who stood right in front of the doors. Allura and Coran stood off to the side waiting for the magic to happen, not literal magic of course but metaphorical magic. No magic was actually used in the releasing of the Black Lion.

As much as the humans had been looking forward to seeing what the Black Lion looked like, they would have to keep waiting. The Green, Yellow, and Blue Lions roared while standing at attention, but the red lion remained silent. No amount of coaxing from Lance could make it make a noise. Eventually they had given up.

“I don’t understand,” Allura sat hunched over with her forehead resting against her palm at the table in one of the lounges, “We have all the lions. The doors should have opened.”

“Maybe that’s not enough,” Pidge commented absently, poking at a plate of food goo, “Maybe each lion needs to actually have its paladin present.”

“That does make sense,” Coran agreed as he set out some other plates of goo for the other hungry paladins, “We’ve never had a reason for the paladins to be separated from their Lions. This is a first for us.”

It wasn’t really a comfort to know that the Alteans knew as much as the humans.

“I don’t know what to do,” Allura said frustrated, “Where do we even begin to start looking for a red paladin? We’re stuck on Arus!” She moved her plate of food goo to the side so she could rest her head on the cool table top.

“Allura,” Coran said, gently laying a hand on her shoulder, “I was looking through the systems earlier and I noticed something I think you would like to see.”

She looked up at him and his warm smile, instantly she trusted that it was important. They seemed to be the only two in the room since they left without acknowledging anyone else. He laced his arm through hers so he could guide her through the halls with all the grace her rank designated to her. Allura was familiar with the layout of the castle, having lived in it her whole life, and had a hunch as to where they were headed, but she didn’t put too much thought into it. Given where they were, she had a feeling she wanted to be completely surprised by what was to come.

“I was with your father for the entire process of building the Lions,” Coran said, softly starting conversation, “You were too young to remember any of the initial process. With all the time and effort your father put into building and implementing a team he hoped would bring peace to the universe, let’s just say that you and I spent a good deal of quality time together.”

Coran slowed their pace in front of a door near the bottom of the castle. Allura now knew for certain where they were and why they were there.

“When you were just a child you would call me your father,” Coran almost whispered, with a small smile and misty eyes, “I have had the pleasure of watching you grow into a brave young lady, but I hope you will still consider me family.”

“Coran, of course,” Allura assured him, giving him the biggest, brightest smile he had seen in such a long time.

“I am so glad to hear that, Allura,” Coran smiled back, gently squeezing her hands, “but for times that one father’s advice is not enough, always remember that you have a second one.”

Coran opened the door and led Allura into a room that appeared empty. He pushed another button by the door, opening a section of the floor in the middle of the room, and raising a platform lined with everything needed to make a hologram.

“Your father had his conscious stored in the castle,” Coran said wetly, “He’s still here for you, Allura.” She didn’t know how to respond. “I’ll let you have a moment. There are some other things I need to tend to.”

Allura was awe struck by the prospect that something from her time ten thousand years ago had lasted to now. She tackled Coran in a hug.

“Thank you,” Allura whispered, “Father.”

He gave her one last tight squeeze before letting her reunite with her biological father.

 

On his way back to the kitchen, Coran stumbled across Shiro, who was sitting dejectedly in front of the doors the black lion was locked behind.

“Shiro? What are you doing over here?” Coran stopped in front of him. Shiro looked up, eyes distant.

“Trying to bond with my lion?” He said with a shrug. Shiro honestly wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t have a lion to train with, he didn’t have a bayard to figure out. Training with his arm had lead to nothing but headaches and panic attacks.

“I’m afraid to say that I don’t think you can bond _through_ the door,” Coran said slowly, giving it serious thought. There was still a lot that they didn’t know about the Lions, maybe Shiro could bond through the door.

“It’s fine, Coran,” Shiro said, standing up ready to leave, “I just don’t really have anything else to be doing right now.”

“I’m sure the other paladins would welcome your company,” He tried to sound encouraging. It was important to seek out teammates in times of need, it helped build trust and camaraderie. Most importantly trust.

“Yeah, they all kind of went their separate ways,” Shiro said off handedly, “After unlocking the black lion failed everyone just kind of wandered off once you and Allura left.”

Coran was actually very glad to know that, it told him where he needed to go next.

“I’m guessing rest is out of the question?” Coran asked tentatively.

“Sleep is impossible,” Shiro said shaking his head slowly, “I can’t fall asleep, and when I do I just have these nightmares that I can’t tell if they’re dreams or memories. And they’re terrifying.” Coran was seeing a side of Shiro he didn’t know had existed. Shiro’s eyes were wide with fear, hands fisted with tension.

In that moment a lot of things made sense to Coran. Shiro and Allura had something in common: they were both mourning the loss of what had been. And while Coran knew how to help Allura, he had no idea how to help Shiro. Even though Coran couldn’t think of any permanent solutions at that moment, that didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything.

“Come to the med bay later,” Coran instructed him, “We have something that we used to use on Altea to help children sleep. It’s less potent than the one for adults, so we’ll use that until I’m more familiar with how humans work.”

“Really?” Shiro asked hopefully, his eyes looked a little less lost, face a little more determined.

“This is temporary, mind you,” He warned sternly, but without any real weight added to his words, “Eventually, you are going to need to work through this. Medicine doesn’t fix everything, but I will start looking into anything that might help your memory.”

“Thank you, Coran,” Shiro smiled with a new light in him.

“Now, go find somewhere more comfortable to lay about! That floor cannot be good for your body,” Coran teasingly berated him, “Unless that’s just my old body.”

“It’s not just you,” Shiro sobered slightly, “It’s not the most comfortable place to sit.”

Coran smiled encouragingly as Shiro turned and left. It wasn’t a permanent fix, but it was nice to see a small bounce in his step. Coran might have woken up ten thousand years in the future, but he couldn’t imagine surviving a year as a Galra slave after being kidnapped off a distant moon and separated from his crew. Yes, the Alteans had been at war with the Galra, but there had been so much political deception that once the actual war had come around, it hadn’t lasted long enough for there to be many prisoners of war.

 

Coran didn’t want to think about it too much; but without having any understanding of how the Galra treat those they capture there wasn’t much he could do to help Shiro. It would be something he would have to research later. Right then he had another paladin to check in on, and he had a good idea on where to find him.

“Lance,” Coran said in lieu of greeting as he walked into the red lion’s hanger.

“Coran,” Lance’s voice came from one of the red lion’s front paws, he was sitting on top of it, “I don’t get why we need to have a red paladin present. If we do manage to find one, it’s not like we’d have a uniform to give them.”

Lance was acting exactly how Coran expected. He was always the one to wear his heart on his sleeve, but still use distractions to keep his emotions private. Everyone knew he was torn up about the red paladin, but no one knew to what extent.

“Then it’s a good thing we keep extras on hand,” Coran said it like he meant it seriously, but he knew Lance would see it for what it was, a joke.

“But that’s not the point,” Lance whined, letting his head loll to the side so he could look at the Advisor, “It’s not like the suit is what makes one a paladin. It’s hard work, self sacrifice, teamwork, loyalty. If we do this right we shouldn’t be in any one place long enough to find a person who portrays all of that.”

“That is true,” Coran strategically gave ground, “but I wouldn’t say these new Paladins have been here for so very long, but they do seem to be proving themselves admirably.”

“Coran,” Lance whined again.

“You need to spend time with them,” Coran jumped to the point. This was how their conversations tended to go, dance around a topic to test the waters before addressing it directly.

“I shouldn’t have let him go.” Lance said hollowly, “I _knew_ it was a bad idea, but I couldn’t stop him.”

“Lance, Keith—”

“ _Please, don’t_ ,” Lance curled in on himself.

“The Red Paladin knew what he was doing,” Coran tried to console him, “if anyone might have succeeded it would have been him. Just like you he pledged his life to Voltron and universal peace.”

“No one would have succeeded and you know that,” Lance spat bitterly, “There is no reasoning with Zarkon. Alfor gave him everything he wanted and called it peace. They worked on two different agendas and called it harmony.”

“Lance,” Coran scolded, “you know better than that.”

“I know,” Lance’s voice lost all its fight, “I’m sorry.”

“It feels like we lost them all yesterday, and expecting you to move on so soon is harsh,” Coran laid a hand on Lance’s shoulder, “but here now are new Paladins that could use your guidance and companionship. Get to know your new team. Share with them the history of the Paladins. Honor your previous team’s memory. We were lucky enough to survive, so let’s try to heal as well.”

Lance had started to cry during Coran’s speech. Unfazed by the tears Coran pulled him closer, rubbing his back soothingly.

“I miss him the most, but I miss the others too,” Lance sniffled as he let himself be held, “What ever happened with you and—”

“We made our peace before the war,” Coran admitted, “I miss him dearly, everyday, but I know that I have to look after you all now.”

“Coran,” It was now Lance’s turn to scold.

“I am working through it while welcoming our new family members,” Coran said as professionally as he could manage, as they were talking about such a personal topic, “We have lost so much, but don’t forget that we still have a future.”

Coran held Lance close for as long as Lance was willing to let him, and Lance let him for a very long time.

“Okay,” Lance said at last, his voice rough from crying and quite. He wiped at his face so he would look presentable, “Okay, I’m ready.”

“I’m glad,” Coran smiled warmly at the young Altean, “Go look for Shiro. There is plenty of time left before bed for you to help him train with his arm. I think the exercise will help you both.” Lance returned Coran’s smile with his own that radiated appreciation. Coran was glad to give them both a goal.

 

It was hours later that Coran had some time to himself. After he left the red lion’s hanger he had found Pidge in the Green Lion’s hanger. He had given her some background and theory on Altean technology, and had dug out some old robots that she was allowed to tinker with rather than pulling apart what was in the living spaces. Though he couldn’t offer her any user manuals in English, he was able to translate enough for her to get a better idea of what she was doing. In return he listened to her talk about what technology she had worked with on Earth. It had been a fascinating conversation that Coran would have loved to continue, but had to put to an end by reminding Pidge to eat. Also threatening to lock the Green Lion’s hanger if she did not go take care of herself.

Coran had found Hunk in the kitchen trying to make cookies, but having no idea what was food and what was cleaning supplies. He had been more than happy to step up and help him sort through the kitchen, and start a reference sheet for what everything was and how to best use it. Coran had been pleasantly surprised at what Hunk could make with such limited resources, since they hadn’t made it through all the cabinets. While Hunk had been cooking he had also been talking. Hunk talked about everything on his mind, from how the Garrison was to how he was handling being in space (plot twist: he was handling it better than he had first expected). Coran enjoyed the food put in front of him and had suggested that Hunk spend some time with Lance. Between the two of them, Coran figured they could hold days of conversation if given any topic.

That had taken up the rest of his time before bed, as soon as the lights had dimmed Coran met Shiro at med bay for the sleep aid. After that, though, Coran felt that there was one more person he had to see before he could call it a day.

Letting his feet lead him on the familiar path the few floors down to the room he had been in for a few moments earlier that day. He wasn’t fooled by the empty room, he didn’t hesitate before hitting the button that brought up the platform with the hologram program. He fidgeted slightly until the program was fully loaded, revealing the physical representation of the saved conscious.

“Coran,” King Alfor’s voice was deep and comforting.

“Alfor,” Coran let out a relieved sigh, walking forward to get as close as he could to a person he could no longer embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost forgot what my note was going to be lol  
> I have Lance's POV of him flying through the battle and bonding with and flying Red written out. I can post that as an extra if you all want to read it, just let me know and I'll go ahead and post that.
> 
> And remember: if there is a scene I brushed over that you want to see elaborated on I can do that. I like writing, I'm assuming you like reading, feel free to leave a request  
> Or you can find me on Tumblr with the same username
> 
> Thanks again for the amazing response!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I didn't know what an update schedule is? I still don't know. Sorry for the wait, I got super busy. And Congrats to everyone who has waited for this chapter! We're almost there!

“Good news, everyone,” Coran said cheerfully as he walked into the lounge. The Paladins were all taking a much needed break since they had been helping fix up the castle almost non-stop for the last Earth week. They had been lucky that the Galra had not returned for a repeat attack, losing the red lion was probably what kept them at bay. Reprimanding officers involved a lot of paperwork and signatures, the paladins weren’t expecting another attack until the Galra had finished filling it all. Unless the Galra yelled ‘Forget this!’ into an airlock and came back anyway. It was anyone’s guess really.

“Are we finally getting off this planet?” Pidge asked poking at some food goo she still had from breakfast.

“We’re finally—yes, actually.” Coran’s bright and shiny enthusiasm dimmed back to his usual cheery professionalism, “The last diagnostic came back with numbers that we can actually use to take off soon. We should be ready to go be tomorrow morning!” 

“Oh thank god,” Pidge face planted on the table top, “I don’t want to have to work on anymore hardware for  _ such a long time _ .” 

“Speak for yourself,” Hunk chimed in, walking over from the kitchen area, “I had a great time, except when we had to manage like three days of work into a few hours that was not cool, but working with alien tech was like a dream I didn’t know I had.” 

“I think going to space and finding aliens checks off most of my dreams,” Pidge mumbled. Shiro didn’t say anything but he looked at them all fondly, if not with slight exasperation. 

“Allura is setting up the launch sequence now, so we will need all of you in the bridge so you can be properly secured for take off,” Coran said cheerfully, he made no move to leave just waiting on the Paladins to follow him. Allura had been anxious to leave as soon as possible so they could take hurry and take stock of how the universe had been fairing for the last ten thousand years under Zarkon’s dictatorship. 

While the human paladins were still somewhat hesitant being so far from home and having to suddenly interact with aliens and being pulled into a space war and abruptly losing everything they ever knew and having to learn new alien things on the fly and bond and fly magical lions and, well, the list could go on but there was a lot they were having to make adjustments for. 

There was a deep rumbling sound that came from the base of the castle, making the floor beneath their feet start to vibrate.

“Um, Coran is that supposed to be happening?” Shiro asked concerned, looking at the floor like it was about to break open and eat him.

“Well, it’s not supposed to happen yet,” Coran said, also looking down, “I hope that’s not a setback we really can’t afford anymore of those.”

“Yet?” Pidge questioned, “Does that mean Allura is taking off now?” 

Hunk’s eyes got large. The group hadn’t even made it out of the lounge yet, they had had some timed response training for getting into armor and showing up to the bridge. Those trainings had been for when alarms were blaring and they were under threat of attack, not for when Coran came to herd them like children.

“She shouldn’t be,” Coran said hesitantly, “Allura has always been a bit over eager when it comes to getting things done. Good heart, but a strong head.”

“Thick skull,” Pidge said correcting his use of an Earth phrase.

“Actually, I think it can be either way.” Hunk piped up from the kitchen, “Nice job, Coran.”

There was an intense pressure that sent them all to the floor, except for Coran because being thrown against the floor seemed to be reserved for Humans. 

How considerate.

It took several minutes of the intense pressure, and the feeling of being a human pancake, before it finally stopped. Very delicately the humans picked themselves off of the floor, Shiro had been half off the couch so he had an extra crick in his back. 

“Hmm, I guess she took off early. Good news is that means it wasn’t a system error.” Coran observed belatedly, “Oh, what are you all doing on the floor?”

“I don’t think we can withstand the same amount of G-force that you can without being affected,” Shiro said breathlessly, “Even trained human professionals can only withstand 35 G’s of pressure, untrained…”

“That does sound serious,” Coran said seriously, “but I have to ask: what is a gee force? And why do you need training against its force?” Shiro wiped his hand down his face in frustration.

“G-force is—”

“ _ Allura!!! _ ” Lance’s screaming from down the hall cut Shiro’s explanation off.

“Yes, I hadn’t quite gotten around to waking Lance up.” The Altean Advisor noted, the humans just shared a look as a pajama clad Blue Paladin went running down the hall. Coran calmly walked after him. The humans didn’t know how to react and just burst into a collective laughing fit. 

“I think I could get to like Lance. He’s weird,” Pidge said after they had all sobered up.

“As much as I agree with that statement,” Hunk said from where he was eyeing over the kitchen counter of fallen ingredients, “but I think the G-force went to all of our heads because we are now in space. I think we forgot that.”

They were all silent again, one-by-one they looked out the window. Hunk had been right. Gone were the green fields and forest areas of Arus, that had all been replaced by stars and the inky vastness of space. 

“I know we were been in space before,” Pidge said, finally breaking the silence, “but guys, we’re in  _ space _ .”

They all slowly made their way over closer to the window, each of their paths individual to the others. In companionable silence they watched the stars and nebulas and galaxies and other beauties of space.

They were so wrapped up in what they were seeing that the blaring alarm gave them all a heart attack.

“Okay, now I think we’re supposed to run,” Shiro said smiling at Pidge and Hunk.

***

They had been on high alert for two Earth weeks. Constantly being called into action at all hours of the day and night to be ready to fight off the Galra that kept finding them no matter how far away they jumped by portal through the universe. 

“I just don’t understand. How do they keep finding us?” Coran wondered aloud, scratching his head in thought. The Paladins were tired, the random calls at any hour had completely ruined the sleep cycles they had had trouble forming in the first place. No whatever sleep they did get was just plain unrestful.

“Is it possible that Shiro’s arm is has a tracking device in it?” Pidge murmured sleepily from where she was lounged half-asleep in her chair.

“It is possible I could have missed it when I scanned it the first time. Galra technology has changed a lot in ten thousand years, and if I’m being honest I wasn’t exactly the most competent with it to begin with. We had someone else for that,” Coran said light-heartedly. No one knew how he wasn’t dead on his feet. He seemed to always be popping around the castle fixing this and that, while still having the time to mother the paladins with nutritious food goo and pep talks for homesickness.

“Was it the red paladin?” Pidge asked, interest finally piqued. Coran hesitantly glanced at Lance, who said nothing as he got up and left the room.

“Pidge, no prying,” Shiro scolded, not for the first time and definitely not for the last time.

“Oh come on, Shiro. Everyone is wondering. Even you though you won’t admit it,” Pidge grumbled, shifting into a more comfortable slouch.

“Yeah, what’s the deal between them?” Hunk asked. 

“Lance hasn’t spoken of it?” Coran shifted uneasily from foot to foot, debating what his next move was going to be. Perhaps a nudge in the right direction would help to start a healing conversation, “I won’t go into much detail, but he and the Red Paladin share a bond that can only be severed by death. I can only assume that their bond with each other was only strengthened by their bonds with their respective Lions, explaining how Lance felt Keith’s emotions when he flew red.”

“Keith?” Pidge asked unimpressed.

“Yes, that was his name.”

“Not a very alien sounding name.” Hunk agreed with what Pidge had only implied.

“Well, I assume that the ‘alien sound’ to it has been lost through translation.”

“So, Lance’s bond with Keith let Lance fly red?” She clarified. 

“Precisely, over time each of you will form a bond with all the Lions through your own Lion.” Coran explained excitedly and with large hand gestures.

“That can only be ended with death?” Hunk asked nervously for clarification.

“Correct.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Pidge called for a time out as her mind raced a mile a second, “Lance reached out to Keith with this bond, right? And felt his emotions?”

“Yes?”

“So, that means that Keith is able to reach Red through his bond?”

“Of course.” Coran agreed with the obvious statement Pidge was making, though not seeing the point.

“Okay, but can you track that?” She looked at the Altean as if she could get the answer she was searching for just by looking at him. Sadly, people were not books and they had to respond.

“Pidge, what are you onto?” Shiro asked, stepping forward in hopes to catch up on what he missed.

“I mean, would the Galra be able to follow Keith’s mental bond with his Lion back to the Lion’s location?” Pidge was sitting up straight now, searching for flaws in her own logic that would make her theory sound ridiculous. Her understanding of how magic and science worked together was lacking at the moment, even more so since it was in an alien setting. But from what she did know about science she knew that if something could be projected, even if seemingly invisible, it could also be tracked.

“Theoretically, I suppose.” Coran relented after serious thought, “But we are galaxies from where we were. There is no way he can reach this far with either of his bonds.”

“But it  _ is _ possible to track that bond back to the source,” Pidge continued to push.

“I see where Pidge is coming from,” Hunk cut, brow furrowed in concentration, “It’s easy enough to boost a signal in order to scan a wider range.”

“But he’s not a piece of equipment you can tweak with!” Coran defended while he wrapped his head around what the Paladins were saying to him.

“From what Allura has been saying it doesn’t sound like the Galra, or Zarkon, care.” Shiro reminded Coran gently. Shiro was also not liking what Hunk and Pidge were suggesting, but he trusted their logic, especially in their areas of expertise. Alien magic wasn’t their forte, but science sure was and the principle was simple enough to follow. Simple ideas seemed to be the hardest ones to make foolproof and tended to have the worst consequences. 

Going to Kerberos hadn’t been easy to pull together, but the idea had been simple. Make history by going to the edge of their galaxy, collect some ice samples to learn about what was out there, come back and be heroes. Simple idea, disastrous consequences. 

“I am going to rescan Shiro’s arm and hope we are wrong about your new theory.” Coran said with more weight and seriousness than they had seen from him yet. “I don’t want to think that he is helping them willingly and I don’t want to think that they are forcing him.”

“Nothing is certain yet,” Shiro said trying to console the Altean, “He may be fine.”

“Either way he is not fine.” Coran said seriously, “Your bond with with your Lion is a very organic and natural joining of two conscious. There is only one way to ‘boost the signal’ as you say.”

“And how is that?” Hunk asked nervous for the answer.

“You would have to fill that person with quintessence. Which is a  _ very _ painful process.” Coran wordlessly motioned for Shiro to follow him back to the med bay for yet another scan. Hunk and Pidge sat there in the quiet. It seemed as though Coran’s parting statement gave them more to think about than their combined theory of tracking.

“So that means…” Hunk didn’t want to say it out loud, saying out loud would make it real.

“It means: willing or not Keith is in a lot of pain to be tracking us so often and so far.” Pidge completed the thought for him, “But it also means that he is alive.”

That didn’t make them feel any better.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess who decided to show up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this a couple days ago, sorry about that.   
> Good news is the next chapter is partially written! Also good news for you guys is that for whatever reason I plotted this out into a longer piece that will include more parts of the show. I didn't really have an idea on how to end it and now it seems I don't have to figure that out yet.

Lance stood in front of a large window in an observation deck hidden away in the castle. None of the other paladins would think to look for him here, and it had been so long since things had been normal that he didn’t think Allura would remember his favorite haunt. Lance stood there in front of the large window. He was too numb to do anything else. Too empty to move and let his legs give out, the thought of falling to his knees just felt like it would take too much effort than continuing to stand there shell shocked.

Lance had been told of the theory that was slowly being pieced together by the other paladins. They told him about how they thought that Keith was alive, but being used as a tracking device for them. Being put to sleep and woken up periodically over ten thousand years, being pumped full of quintessence in order to fulfill Zarkon’s twisted desire for Voltron. It made Lance want to cry, or throw up, punch a wall, or start a fight. 

“Lance, you know we will get him back,” Coran said softly, behind him.

“I should have known, Coran, I should have known that something was wrong for ten thousand years,” Lance muttered, arms crossed holding himself, eyes never leaving the passing stars.

“There’s no way you could have, those cryo pods don’t leave much room for your bond to feel much of anything.” Coran reminded him, slowly stepping closer so he could provide whatever comfort he could. He and Lance had both grown up outside the palace, only once they had reached the acceptable age had started lessons at the Castle. It wasn’t often that the Castle accepted students outside the nobles who lived there, and there was a steep culture shock that Coran immediately stepped in to help Lance adjust to. Ten thousand years later and Coran was still helping Lance adjust.

“What about you?” Lance asked cautiously, “Did you feel anything?”

Coran was silent for a long moment.

“Yes,” He eventually whispered, “but I wasn’t in cryosleep when it happened.”

“Coran!” Lance stopped his personal pity party and dragged Coran into a tight hug. It was said that the most painful thing anyone could endure was the feeling of losing your bondmate. Lance had been ignoring any idea that Keith could be dead, but if Keith were dead Lance could only be grateful that he was in cryosleep and avoided that pain. But Coran, oh Coran was awake for the loss of his bondmate.

“It’s alright, Lance,” Coran hugged him back while trying to brush it off as no big deal, “As you can see I am still alive and kicking.” Lance could see that he was trying to be chipper about it all, but Lance would not have it.

“Stop it,” Lance said harshly, tears pooling in his eyes, “Anyone with eyes and glanced in your direction could see how smitten you were with each other. You and Alfor were the mates most people aspired to be. Not to mention that your bond went deeper than most did, I can’t imagine the pain you went through.” 

Coran finally let his smiling mask drop, genuine anguish taking over instead.

“I’ve had sometime to sleep it off and heal,” Coran hugged Lance back.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Lance whispered into Coran’s chest. It was said the the most painful thing one could endure was the loss of a bondmate, but it was rare that anyone spoke about the empty numb feeling that seeped into one’s bones after all was said and done.

“Thank you, Lance,” Coran took a moment to pull himself together, “Now, if I remember correctly we have a mate to go find.” 

***

“Alright, paladins,” Allura said from the raised platform of the command room, “we have some semblance of a plan for the red paladin’s rescue. We are waiting for Zarkon to find us, I have made the castle stationary in order to bring attention us faster. We have lost him for now, but we cannot seek him out and guarantee that Keith will be out of cryosleep. He must come to us and hope we have picked a strong spot for offense.” 

“Hunk and Pidge will be distractions and Shiro will take one of the fighter crafts like last time,” Lance said from Allura’s side, he held himself stiffly with more focus than they had seen yet. Lance could feel that change in himself as well. He was getting Keith and there was nothing that could stop him, “Our time frame for this is unknown. We don’t know how soon they put him back in cryosleep after—after using him to find us.” He finished his sentence through gritted teeth. 

“Don’t worry, Lance,” Shiro said, laying a hand carefully on his shoulder, “We’ve got your back.” 

And then the alarms started blaring, signaling the arrival of the galra. 

“Everyone to their stations immediately,” Allura ordered, eyes skimming her screen almost frantically as the new information poured in. “Lance, your pod is ready down in the hanger with Shiro’s. Be careful, both of you.”

Lance nodded to her and left the command room with Shiro right on his heels. They were all in their armor so communication wouldn’t be hindered.

“Pidge, Hunk, status update,” Shiro called over the comms as he situated himself in his fighter craft, nodding to Lance as he climbed into a smaller craft.

“It’s been like two minutes, Shiro,” Pidge complained, “You have to give us a little more time than that to get in position.”

“I’m ready to go and I will get started without you all,” Lance threatened, bringing his craft to the start of the runway preparing for take-off.

“Lance, don’t you dare,” Shiro chastised, maneuvering his own craft for take-off, “You will wait for cover before you leave this hanger. I can make that an order if you don’t value your own life.”

Shiro couldn’t quite hear what Lance said next but it sounded along the lines of “don’t tempt me.” Which would be addressed later in case it ever because a problem. In as a team and out as a team was more important to Shiro than anything else, trust that your teammates would always have your back was grilled into him from the Garrison.

“We’re out and providing cover, Shiro,” Hunk informed them over the sound of battle in the background. The windows of the cockpit were opaque but Shiro looked to Lance’s craft in the hopes of catching his eye one last time before heading out into the uncontrollable battle. He needed to be able to know that Lance wouldn’t improvise on the plan.

“Lance, that’s our cue. Keep a low profile once you’re on the ship, and call me  _ immediately _ if you need back-up. Am I clear?” Shiro couldn’t stress that anymore than he already had.

“Get in, get Keith, or die trying. I know.” Lance said coldly over the comms before taking off. Shiro knew he should probably have fought that, but there just wasn’t the time. A small beeping noise caught his attention right as he also took off out of the hanger, it was a private line request from Allura.

“Allura?” Shiro asked, “What’s wrong? Has something happened?” He wasn’t sure why she was calling him so soon.

“No, we’re all fine here so far.” Allura assured him, “It’s just Lance spent a lot of time around the Galra and seemed to have picked up some of their ideals. He might seem intense at the moment, but you shouldn’t need to worry about him too much. He’s not completely reckless.” 

That did actually comfort Shiro to a certain extent. 

“Thank you for letting me know, princess, but I think I have to go now,” Shiro said, distracted by all the galra fighter crafts spilling out of the battleship ahead of him, “They don’t seem to be saving any expense on taking us out.”

“Be safe, Shiro, the Castle will always be here for back-up once they are in closer range.” Allura reassured him before ending the call.

It seemed to be a whole lot of fuss from some cat robots, but Shiro wasn’t really one to judge what dictators in space did with their time. He honestly didn’t care. Unless it hurt people, then he would be more than willing to step in and fight. 

***

Lance had tunnel vision as soon as his butt hit the seat of his stealth craft. He knew he must seem obsessive to everyone else, and he wished that he could calm himself down from this, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get his body to stop vibrating with the knowledge that he was close, Keith was  _ close _ . And Lance  _ had _ to find him.

Lance wove his way through the intense battle raging all around him, this was the second time that he should have been there for his team and instead went off on his own. He knew he needed to be better than this, the new paladins deserved better than this, but there was just empty cold space where his bond was supposed to be and he  _ needed _ it to be filled. He would pull himself together no matter how this rescue mission went. For better or worse he need to fully be there for his team. 

“Okay team, I’m coming into position,” Lance said as steadily as he would as he attached his ship to the side of the Galra cruiser, “I’m going in now and will keep you updated as I go.”

“Good luck, Lance,” Was corussed back to him as he slipped through the hole he had cut into the hull of the cruiser, submerging him in purple.

After all the time he had spent with the Galrans he had learned to appreciate the color, needed a bit of variation but overall it wasn’t bad. Lance kept close to the walls as he moved through the hallways, the setup hadn’t changed much since the last time he had been on a Galran ship. That was lucky. 

Footsteps neared him, but they were took in-sync and measured to be an actual person, sentries. He could just as easily avoid sentries. The footsteps neared him, then passed him, he peeked around one of the columns attached to the wall to watch the sentries pass and to confirm that they were in fact robots and nothing more. He had been right, that was a relief, except that those sentries also carried guns, more appt to attack than just act as security alarm. That was going to be annoying.

Lance didn’t move from where he was hiding, he figured it was as good of place as any to pause and collect himself, to reach out and try to feel Keith through their bond before Lance went running around looking through every available door. He seemed to have also gotten lucky in picking a quiet area of the ship, not a lot of patrols were coming by. That was a comfort as Lance closed off his mind to what was around him and instead focussed on what was inside him, that warm feeling that only came with a bond. It was like a weighted tether, it felt solid in his chest then thinned out as it tried to connect him to his mate. And he felt it, and he could follow it.

Opening his eyes Lance made his way through the ship, ducking behind columns as footsteps neared. He had a pretty good idea of the layout of the ship and he felt confident that he would be able to make it back to his own little craft. That would be made harder with carrying another person, but Lance would take that risk and any other that came his way. He could feel himself getting closer to Keith as their bond seemed less strained, less thin, but still damaged by time and in need of repair. 

It didn’t take much longer for Lance to reach the end point on the opposite side of the ship. His bond had led him to two massive doors with a triangluarish shape etched into the metal, that was something he took note of since all the other doors were blank. There was something vaguely familiar about the design, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Carefully Lance cracked the door open just enough to peek inside, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

Etched into the floor in the middle of the barely lit room was the same design on the door, and in the middle of that design was Keith. Keith was just laying there unconscious, as if he were a doll that had been tossed by a disinterested child after hours of play. He looked worse for wear and it tore Lance’s heart to pieces, Keith’s fur was matted, head fur long and tangled, claws chipped, and dressed in a prisoner's uniform. Lance moved to enter the room, but some cloaked figure from the darkened edges stepped forward first, then another, and another. The new comers had their faces covered with beak-like masks and heads covered by a hood on their purple robes. Lance stayed put figuring what he was about to see would be important, and he also couldn’t take them all out at once.

The figures stepped to each side of the triangle, carefully kneeled, then murmured something under their breaths that caused the triangle design to light up in a pale purple. It would have been interesting if it had not also caused Keith to writhe and scream, he contorted his body in such a painful looking way Lance wasn’t sure he wasn’t also screaming from self-inflicted pain. Either way he had seen enough.

Lance barged into the room interrupting the ceremony. The glow died down and so did Keith’s cries, but he was still convulsing and twitching on the floor.

“There you are,” One spoke, though it sounded as though it came from all of them, “we knew you would come out if we did that again.”

Lance grabbed his bayard ready to fight, but the cloaked figures didn’t move, didn’t flinch. Lance fired a warning shot causing one of the figures to disappear, another figure waved its hand and the floor was littered with Keiths laying on the floor. Lance made a mad dash for the Keith in the middle of the triangle design, but the third cloaked figure charged him distracting Lance enough that he was thrown off his course. He stumbled into one of the Keiths and noticed how that Keith disappeared on impact. They were illusions. The Galra didn’t work that way, that wasn’t how Galran magic worked. There shouldn’t be illusions.

New determination filled Lance as he made his way back to where the real Keith was, only to have that one vanish in his arms. There were still dozens of Keiths laying around the room and Lance had no way to figure out which one it was in a timely manner. Taking a deep breath Lance silently asked for forgiveness as he set his blaster to the stun setting. It would sting, but he was running out of options. 

It might have been dark in the room, but Lance’s helmet helped to brighten what he was looking at. He could have used to to figure out which illusion wasn’t an illusion, but all of them had a weak pulse of life, and Lance was too frantic to focus deeply on his bond. Lance fired a shot at each of the illusions in rapid succession and watched each vanish before his eyes. All except one.

The real Keith was lying deeper in the room, against the back wall opposite the door. Without hesitating or giving thought to maybe this was a trap Lance scrambled over and lifted his mate into his arms. Keith gave no indication that he knew what was happening around him. Lance didn’t care. Keith was alive, even if barely, and he was ready to take them home.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This wasn't all I had written, the next part wasn't completely finished, but you know what??? You guys deserve an update and I feel bad for not posting this sooner.

“Lance, you’ve been sitting here for five days,” hunk commented carefully, taking a seat next to him, “You need to sleep.”

“I can’t.” Lance answered simply.

“I understand that you two are close, but you have to take care of yourself too.”

“I  _ can’t _ .” Lance insisted, never taking his eyes off of the healing pod, “I  _ have _ to know if he’s okay.” 

Hunk tried to search in himself to see if he was anywhere near as concerned about Keith as Lance was, since Keith was technically the Red Paladin and they all shared a bond, but while Hunk was worried it was nowhere near the same amount of sit outside the healing pods for two days without leaving level of obsessive concern. Hunk just assumed it was because he hadn’t had to meld his mind with Keith’s yet, and that Lance and Keith were two original Paladins.

“He’s not evil,” Lance said quietly. Hunk wasn’t 100% sure whether Lance was talking to him or to himself, “Sure he was hot headed, acted before he thought,  _ never _ listens to me, was such a show-off, pickiest eater I have ever met—” Lance cut himself off and stood just as the healing pod finished opening. To Hunk it looked like second nature the way Lance caught Keith as he fell out of the pod and into Lance’s arms, the same way Allura had when they found her.

“Hey, mate,” Lance said with the softest smile and watery eyes.

“I could feel you talking shit.” Keith joked weakly.

Lance let out a full bodied laugh that quickly turned into quiet sobs, Keith managed a few breathy chuckles before pulling Lance closer to him and hiding his face in Lance’s neck. Lance lowered them to the floor and refused to let go.

“Right,” Hunk said awkwardly from right next to them, “I’ll just go let everyone know that he’s awake.” 

Hunk took his time letting the others know that Keith was awake, he wanted to give the two original Paladins some privacy to get reacquainted with each other before the rush of new faces and invasive questions overwhelmed Keith. While Hunk could delay telling everyone he couldn’t avoid it all together. As soon as the message was out of his mouth, everyone dropped what they were doing and raced to the med room. It was exactly what Hunk had expected, he sighed as he turned back around and made his way back to the med bay, much faster than before.

It didn’t seem like he had missed much when he made it back to the rest of the group.

“It’s good to have you back, Keith,” Coran said, smiling brightly, “finally someone who can keep Lance in line.”

“Hey!” Lance whined, “We all know it’s me saving his butt when he over reacts.”

“Oh of course,” Coran teased, “It is good to see you safe and awake. You gave us quite the scare for a while there.” 

“It’s good to be back,” Keith rasped out, it was scratchy and breathy from screaming and disuse.

This was the first time Hunk had seen Keith awake and it was hard to see him as the same man Lance had been describing. Keith looked so small underneath the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and Lance’s arm resting on the back of his neck. But Keith wasn’t small, Hunk could tell that he had long lanky limbs that would become powerful as soon as he was fully rested and got some food in him. Keith was also the first Galra Hunk had ever seen close up. And he honestly had to admit that they looked the same from afar, Keith had pupilless goldish-yellow eyes that seemed to glow slightly, a matted layer of purple fur covered his skin, he had dark purple almost black hair—or fur—that hung twisted and knotted down to his shoulders.

“Keith, what happened?” Allura asked, imploring for details that could help them in their fight against Zarkon.

“Allura, can’t it wait?” Lance tried to intervene, “He just woke up and he needs to rest some more.” Allura nodded that she heard him, but her eyes never left Keith.

“He—he was trying to find the Lions,” Keith whispered, voice gravelly, “then more recently he used me to track the Red Lion to find you all. I am sorry.”

“What lie did he promise you in return for helping him?” Allura questioned, giving Keith a once over, “Or did he actually follow through and grant you an unusually long life, twisting that to make you his tracker pet?”

“Allura!” Lance shot to his feet, ready to fight.

The only thing the humans in the room could do was watch.

“Lance, the Galra destroyed our planet, our people, are taking over the Universe, and he’s one of them.” Allura argued back without flinching.

“Wait, what are they doing?” Keith softly interrupted the stand-off between the two Alteans. Neither Lance nor Allura answered him, too busy staring at each other.

“Well, we’re new here,” Hunk said, keeping an eye on the potential fight, “but from what we have gathered from what we’ve been told—it sounds like the Galra went crazy serial-killery on the Alteans and then on the rest of the Universe. They’ve conquered most of the galaxies in the Universe, and our planet, Earth, is close to next and you’ve been helping them track the lions for the last ten-thousand years and then tracked us for the last two weeks, so we’re all kinda hesitant about having you here cause like, that’s a lot for us to take in right now.” Hunk finished softly.

Up until this point the reality of Earth being next had been pushed to the back of his mind, between fighting and training it was easy to think that they were fighting for the rest of the Universe, that Earth was safely tucked far away from all the violence. Explain to Keith what had been going on solidified what Hunk wanted to pretend was a loose threat. 

“I didn’t volunteer for that,” Keith said as he tried to sit up straighter, but the lingering stiffness from the healing pod and whatever happened to him over the last ten-thousand years made him wince and clutch his side.

“You have to take it easy for a while,” Lance finally abandoned his stand-off with Allura, returning to Keith’s side.

“I was...I was—” Keith tried to remember, but his trying to find those memories made his head  _ hurt _ and burn.

“Keith!” Lance frantically cupped Keith’s head in between his hands, “Mate, you don’t have to do this now. Breathe, let it go. You have to rest.”

“No, I have to—have to remember,” Keith gritted out, hands tightly gripping Lance’s.

“Mate, stop, it’s not important right now.” Lance scolded, but it didn’t change anything.

“Ambushed!” Keith growled out before he collapsed back onto the bed, “I was ambushed. I went to follow Alfor’s orders to plead Zarkon for peace, but I never made it to the throne room. They ambushed me in the hangar where I landed my Lion. After that….”

“Stop, please.” Lance whispered his plea into the fur on Keith’s head, he had pulled Keith close to his chest and practically into his lap.

“After that,” Keith continued as if he hadn’t heard Lance at all, “it’s just flashes of pain and darkness. I’m sorry that’s all I have.” Keith had been fading fast since he pushed himself into remembering, and like a scene straight out of a movie Keith passed out after he finished speaking.

“Idiot,” Lance said with frustrated affection, “always pushes himself harder than he should.” 

“You should go take care of him,” Allura said from a respectable distance away, “I will have more questions for him later, but you are right. Right now he needs rest.” 

“Quite right,” Coran chirped in like there wasn’t a deadly amount of tension poisoning the air, “Keith hadn’t been taken care of as well as we were over the years so his muscles are rather weak. We’ll have to start a physical therapy regimen to get those muscles back up to snuff! But that will have to come later, after he get him eating again. I think we have some food goo for Galra somewhere around here. I’ll have to go find it.”

“Galra get different goos?” Pidge asked with a whine while she tried to understand the health information on Coran’s computer screen.

“Why of course!” Coran responded as he poked and prodded a knocked out Keith, “their bodies require a different set of nutrients, much more protein in it that what we eat. That protein helps take care of their lush fur and muscle mass.”

“His fur doesn’t look so ‘lush.’” Hunk commented, keeping his eyes glued to their new purple roommate.

“Hunk,” Shiro scolded, “he’s been through a lot. The Galra don’t exactly give you time to keep your hair in order.” 

The solemn reminder of what Shiro had been through settled like a wet-heavy blanket over the med room.

“So, how exactly are you going to clean his fur, Lance?” Pidge had given up on reading the Altean glyphs on the screen and focussed her attention on the new species of alien in front of her.

“I can’t tell you,” Lance said without looking up from Keith’s calm sleeping face, “Galran cleaning rituals are very private, saved for those they feel close to.”

“Oh, well that’s no fun.” Pidge grumbled.

“But in all honesty I have no idea how I’m going to get him cleaned up.” Lance ran his fingers over Keith’s fur, catching on some of the worst spots. “I have never seen his fur this bad. I might just have to shave it off and let it grow in anew. He’ll hate that, but that’s what he gets for getting captured.” 

Pidge wasn’t really one for being super touchy-feely, and felt weird trying to talk to Lance while he was practically laying on top of Keith, but she hoped this was how being reunited with her own family felt like. Pidge had been missing her family for an entire year and it hurt like hell, she couldn’t imagine what it was like to be separated for ten thousand years. And she really didn’t want to find out. 

“I think that’s all for today.” Shiro said, stepping forward to herd his humans out of the room, “We’ll check in on them tomorrow.” 

“Ugh, such a dad.” Pidge groaned as she allowed herself to be led out.

Hunk spared one last glance over his shoulder at the reunited paladins before following Shiro and Pidge out. Coran waved at him as he left.

***

To say that everyone was surprised to see Keith at the breakfast table the next morning was an understatement. Hunk had walked in, saw the new neighbor at the table, and had tried to act like everything was normal. Pidge had walked in and stayed by the door, gaping at what she saw. Shiro walked in not too long after her and nudged her to keep going, the only tell that he gave at noticing there was anything out of the ordinary was the slight pause at the door before continuing. Lance appreciated his new teammates acting normal, but he also couldn’t blame them if they were to burst out laughing. 

It had been a long night in getting Keith anywhere near presentable he did end up having to shave all of Keith’s fur. Keith had screamed and hollered the entire time, but they had been able to negotiate that the fur on his head got to stay. Unmatting that had taken hours and countless tears, but now Keith’s head fur was shiny, brushed, and tied back in a braid as per his family’s tradition. Keith had no memory as to where exactly the rest of his braid had gone, but he tried not to dwell on it, instead focusing on growing it back out. 

But right now. Oh man, even Lance was having a hard time keeping a straight face at the grumpy-pouting face that managed to peak out of the mountain of blankets piled onto a hover chair. Keith wasn’t cleared by Coran to walk yet, so he had to be carted around. So between freezing from his lack of fur and requiring to rely on others for transport, Keith was looking pretty pathetic. And like a hairless cat.

“Come on, you have to eat, mate.” Lance tried goading Keith into eating by raising the spoon to his lips. So add toddler to the growing list of what Keith looked like.

“I know I do, mate,” Keith grumbled, “but I am more than capable of feeding myself.”

“Yeah, you were half-dead in a healing pod yesterday,” Pidge noted, not even looking up from her food, “I highly doubt you can feed yourself so soon after all that.”

“Pidge,” Shiro scolded like a true space dad, “but she is right. Recovery takes time. It’s okay to rely on others until you can start doing things for yourself again.”

“What kind of name is “Pidge?”” Keith asked, narrowing his eyes. “Who—and what—are you people?”

“Mate, this is Shiro,” Lance stepped up to introduce the new paladins with a warning tone to his voice for Keith to be nice, “he’s our new Black Paladin, and has been doing a great job so far.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Keith,” Shiro said with a polite smile, “This little gremlin here is Pidge, she’s the Green Paladin, and the giant teddy bear is Hunk, he’s the Yellow Paladin.” 

“What’s a teddy bear?” Keith asked, his expression not changing. 

“You know what that is, don’t tease them. This is a first impression, mate.” Lance hit Keith’s shoulder lightly. With Keith being the first Galra they had even sat down with the humans were having a hard time reading his expressions, but they think that he was smirking. It was small and fleeting, but it might have been there.

“So they’re all gone?” Keith whispered.

“Yeah,” Lance’s face fell, “yeah they’re gone.”

The tone shift between teasing and mourning gave everyone whiplash and stole any courage to start a new conversation. They continued through their breakfast in a quiet that was occasionally broken by Lance and Keith bickering over what Keith should be allowed to do, like feed himself. Then again later with the clatter of the dropped spoon Keith had fought so hard to get his hands on, because it turned out that Keith was not actually strong enough to feed himself.

“So what does your food goo taste like?” Pidge asked with hesitant curiosity. The goo on Keith’s plate was a deep-bright shade of red, like a mix of a really fancy red wine with strawberry jello.

“Well, I’m not sure he remembers since he refuses to actually eat it,” Lance deadpans.

“Mate, I’ve eaten half of it,” Keith argues back, pouting a little deeper. 

“This is hilarious.” Pidge cackled behind her hand. Hunk couldn’t help but agree. It was like watching a cat video and a baby video at the same time. He would have been happy to watch that for the rest of the day, but Allura walked in with a face that looked like she meant business.

“Good morning, Paladins,” She sounded stressed, “Coran has just informed me that the crystal we have been using to power the castle is starting to fail. We need to find a replacement one as soon as possible, or risk us being stranded. Luckily Coran has found a Balmera nearby, but we need to move quickly. Hunk and Shiro, I need you both to meet Coran down at the loading docks. You two need to leave immediately. Pidge, I need you in the Command Room to divert all extra energy to only necessary functions until we get that new crystal.” Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro nodded then left without another word, leaving their breakfasts forgotten on the table.

“Lance, I need you on the Bridge with me and Pidge, just in case Hunk, Coran, and Shiro need back up.” Allura’s face softened slightly.

“Where do you need me, your highness?” Keith asked, voice stronger than it had been up to that point. The warmth of Allura’s face cooled slightly.

“I do not need you anywhere,” She said, turning to leave, “for now just focus on getting better.” Lance and Keith watched her go.

“She’s right,” Keith wheezed.

“Of course she is, you need to rest.” Lance nodded, glad that Keith finally understood that he needed to take it easy.

“It’s all my fault. I should have done something. I should have been expecting the worst. I should have been ready to fight.” Keith’s breath picked up close to hyperventilating, he squeezed his eyes shut.

“Mate, stop that,” Lance kneeled in front of Keith’s hover chair, cupping his face between his palms, “that’s not you. There was no way you could have known. No one saw that coming. You’re only thinking this because of your group mentality. Keith, mate, they aren’t your group, your family. We are. You aren’t Zarkon’s anymore. You’re ours.”

Slowly Keith’s breathing slowed and he opened his eyes.

“Lance,” Keith whispered, “Mate, you know—”

“Nope!” Lance said while standing up, ignoring the next words out of Keith’s mouth.

“Lance,” Keith pleaded.

“No,” Lance said with finality, “Now, what we are going to do is go to the Command Room and gaze adoringly at a Balmera, because they are beautiful and deserve our praise. Plus you know you can’t resist shiny things. Let’s go.”


End file.
